Crimson Tempest: Part 1
by Advent of Shadows
Summary: While feeling weak after the mission to the Land of Waves, Naruto meets someone that is willing to train him and help him become a great shinobi. With that single change, Naruto begins to grow into a shinobi worthy of his destiny. But can he overcome all the obstacles that stand his way? And what part will the Hidden Cloud play when they learn of the Hero of Wave? Naruto/Samui
1. Point of Divergence

Summary: While lamenting his weakness after the mission to the Land of Waves, Naruto meets someone that is willing to train him and help him become a great shinobi. With that single change, Naruto begins to grow into a shinobi worthy of his destiny. But can he overcome all the obstacles that stand his way? And what part will the Hidden Cloud play when they learn of the Hero of Wave?

Primary Pairing: Naruto/Samui. Just in case you're wondering if there will be a harem, I'll say it now. He will only be with Samui, so there won't be a harem.

Warning: This fic is rated M. If a scene that I feel deserves further warning, despite it being rated M, I will give an additional warning in the chapter.

Notes: First off, this fic will be a little AU. Don't be surprised if I decide to have a character live longer than they did in canon, such as Fu, Han, a member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, etc.

Secondly, I might not do things quite the way you expect. Most people take a story like this, and end Part 1 where it did in canon. I might do that, but I might instead have a couple arcs take place after the Sasuke Retrieval Arc but before Naruto leaves to train with Jiraiya.

Also, this is the rewrite of my previous Naruto/Samui story known as Legacy, so the early chapters will be similar but still different.

* * *

**1. Point of Divergence**

Growing up, Naruto had mistakenly believed that the life of a ninja was eating ramen three times a day, saving princesses, and defeating hordes enemy ninja.

He had become a ninja two months earlier, and he had to say that his perceptions had been shattered. He still tried to eat ramen three times a day, but the other two parts had quickly been proven to be false.

For his first month as a ninja, he had been forced to deal with D-rank missions, which were the bane of his existence. He had done four of them with his team and hated how boring they were. They were just chores, really. What made it worse was that he had actually done six of them by himself. Sasuke had the wealth of the Uchiha clan and Sakura had parents that provided for her.

All Naruto had was a stipend that he received from the Hokage. It had paid for his rent and all of his bills, along with the supplies he needed for the Academy. Unfortunately, the stipend had stopped when he graduated, so he needed to do missions to make sure that he did not end up without a place to stay or food to eat.

And then he had seen a great opportunity in the form of a C-rank mission.

In all honesty, it was not worth doing from a monetary standpoint. He had made just as much ryo during D-rank missions with his team as he did on that C-rank mission. And to make matters worse, the C-rank mission had been as difficult as an A-rank mission but without an increase in pay.

But the end of the mission was what had really gotten to Naruto. He still remembered feeling powerless to save Sasuke in the fight with Haku. He remembered feeling powerless to save Haku from moving between Kakashi's jutsu and Zabuza. He remembered watching Zabuza go to his death without being able to do anything to stop it. Simply put, memories of him being powerless filled his mind.

It was with those memories and thoughts that he stood atop Hokage Mountain and looked out at the village. He had gone straight there from the Hokage's office upon their return home and their report.

"You look troubled."

Naruto glanced back suddenly and saw a man approaching him with brown hair that fell down to his chin, brown eyes, and a senbon in his mouth. He wore a backwards bandana-style forehead protector and the standard attire of a jonin of the village.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked with a slight frown. He had no idea who the man was, having never seen him before.

"I'm Genma Shiranui," he said casually. "So what's wrong?

He did not know why he did not just walk away, but Naruto told him about the mission that he had just come back from. He did not actually explain how he beat Haku, but the look in the man's eyes made it clear that he suspected that the Kyubi was involved.

Once he finished telling the story, he said, "Even though Zabuza and Haku were our enemies, I can't stop thinking about them and wishing that they hadn't died. If I had been stronger, maybe I could have changed something. What if Sasuke tries to protect me again and he doesn't make it out just fine? I can't stand the thought of my teammates dying because I'm not strong enough."

"You met this Haku before you fought him, didn't you?" Genma asked, knowing that Naruto had already said as much. He had not explained it much though.

"Yeah, we met when I was training. He was picking herbs for Zabuza so he could recover faster. I didn't realize who he was at the time or what he was there for though," Naruto answered. "He taught me a lesson too."

"Oh?" Genma asked curiously.

"He taught me that true strength comes from fighting for someone important to us," Naruto said with a faint smile.

"He sounds like he was a good person," Genma said thoughtfully. "That was an important lesson. You'd do well to never forget it. You would also do well to understand that no one can do everything. You can't protect everyone. You can't save everyone from the pain, injury, or death. You stand a better chance of it if you share the burden, but even then, not everything is avoidable."

"But what good can I do when I'm this weak?" Naruto asked, trying not to think about what the man before him had just said. "I thought I was strong, but I never realized how weak I was until we met Zabuza and Haku."

"If you are weak, then become stronger," Genma said firmly. "If you aren't fast or strong enough, then train your body. If you don't have the necessary jutsu to fight and protect your comrades, then learn more. Instead of lamenting your weakness, work on becoming a more skilled shinobi."

"But how?" Naruto asked. "Kakashi-sensei is busy. He said that he needs to help Sasuke get a hang of the Sharingan."

"I can't pretend to know why your sensei acts the way that he does. Frankly, I'd be amazed if Kakashi was a good sensei. He's a good man and a great ninja, but he's never taught anyone before. He's probably thinking that it's best to give each one of you individual training, one at a time. He'll probably go with Sasuke Uchiha first because of the Sharingan. Then, he'll probably move on to the kunoichi in your team. She sounds like she needs the most work, to be honest. And then, he'll probably go to you."

"So I'll have to wait a while?" Naruto asked with a frown.

"No, you won't," Genma said with a chuckle. He was definitely reminded of his old boss's wife when he spoke with Naruto. "If you're willing, then I'll train you. I'm a Special Jonin, which means that I'm a step below Jonin, but I'm more than skilled enough to make you strong. I don't normally offer to train anyone, but I'll make an exception for you."

"Really?" Naruto asked in excitement.

"Sure thing," Genma said with a smile. "Kakashi probably gave you the week off since you just got back from a difficult mission, so drop by Training Ground Three tomorrow morning around nine. I'll be there then. We'll work out a schedule or something once you have to start meeting with your team and doing missions again."

"Thanks," Naruto said, starting to become more cheerful again.

"Don't mention it," Genma said as he turned his back to Naruto. "That would probably be for the best, actually. The Hokage will know that I'm training you within the next twenty-four hours, but I'd prefer that no one else be told for a little while. Think of it like a big prank."

And with that, Genma left and Naruto began to think about the changes to his situation. He could honesty say that he was happy now.

* * *

Far away in the Hidden Cloud Village, a dark-skinned man with shaggy white hair was walking down the hallway of the Administration Building in the standard attire of a Cloud shinobi.

The normally lazy look in his eyes had been replaced with a more serious look as he neared the Raikage's office.

Nearing the outside door, he saw Mabui, the Raikage's assistant, sitting at her desk.

"Is the Boss in?" Darui asked with his hands in his pockets.

"Yes Darui, Lord Raikage is in," Mabui answered with a small smile. "He's doing paperwork, so he would appreciate the interruption." The unspoken though I would not lingered at the end of her statement.

Darui could understand her displeasure at the Raikage being interrupted when he was actually doing work for once. It was very difficult to motivate him to actually do paperwork. The fact that Mabui could do so was nothing short of astounding.

Had anyone else witnessed the exchange, they would not have been able to detect the slightest hint of displeasure in the kunoichi, but that was because she was a very pleasant person and was a very skilled ninja. Though she did not look it, she was a jonin.

Walking up to the door, Darui knocked, receiving permission to enter nearly instantly.

As Darui entered the office and shut the door, he saw that the Fourth Raikage, A, was sitting behind his desk with his cloak and hat on.

"Did an issue come up during your mission?" A asked immediately, taking note of the change in Darui's eyes.

"Yeah, the mission ended in failure," Darui said with a frown.

"I see," A said with a hint of displeasure, though he did not seem to upset. "Don't worry about it. It's understandable if you could not find him. His village isn't in any condition to pay his bounty at the moment."

"I did find him," Darui said, making A pause. "He was in a fight with Kakashi Hatake of the Hidden Leaf Village."

"Oh?" A asked. "Does that mean that the Demon of the Mist was taken care of before you could get to him?"

"Yeah," Darui said as he nodded. "But I got something better than one of the swords of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen."

That had A's full attention.

"After the target died, I decided to do some recon on Hatake's team. He was there with three rookie genin," Darui explained. "One of them wasn't worth paying much attention to. She never sensed me when I was near, even when I wasn't trying to stay hidden. She wasn't from a clan either. But the other two were interesting. The first one's name was Sasuke Uchiha. Apparently he's the kid brother of Itachi Uchiha, and I got a good look at him while he was training. He already unlocked his Sharingan."

"That's a valuable piece of information," A said thoughtfully.

"But it's not as valuable as what I figured out about the third student," Darui interjected. "His name was Naruto Uzumaki."

"A member of the Uzumaki clan?" A asked under his breath, thinking back to the last time his village tried to capture an Uzumaki from the Hidden Leaf Village. "Was he a real Uzumaki with red hair and skill with seals?"

"He didn't have red hair or show any knowledge of seals from what I observed," Darui said as he shook his head. "But that would have just made what I found out even better."

With that, he pulled a picture out from his flak jacket and held it out to A.

"It seems that a failed mission was just what we needed," A said as he looked at the picture of Naruto Uzumaki that had taken of him as he walked through the streets without his knowledge. "It would seem that one of the Copy Ninja's students is the son of Minato Namikaze. He has the same marks on his face that Ginkaku and Kikaku had, so it appears that he is connected to the Kyubi also."

"We found out that the last jinchuriki of the Kyubi was named Kushina Uzumaki," Darui said, remembering the information that he had heard at the end of the Third Great Shinobi War.

"It could be that this boy is the son of both, the Fourth Hokage and the Second Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails," A mused as he set the picture down and removed a blank scroll from one of the drawers of his desk.

"What are you doing, Boss?" Darui asked curiously.

"Back before the Hyuga Affair started, we signed a treaty with the Hidden Leaf Village. One of the conditions that was made was that we could participate in the International Chunin Exams that they set up at the end of the Third Great Shinobi War. All we had to do was ask," A explained as he began to write on the scroll. "So I'm asking now."

That threw Darui for a loop.

"Are we going to capture him or something?" Darui asked.

"No," A said as he shook his head. "That would be a pain in the ass. The last thing we need is for them and their allies to declare war on us. It would weaken us more than it would gain us. We're just going to do a little recon. If we find that the son of the Yellow Flash has the potential to cause us trouble, we'll just have him killed by one of the genin we send. If he's killed during the exams, they can't do anything."

No one could say that A was just a brute of a man. He was also very intelligent.

Of course, no one could have predicted how the coming Chunin Exams would change the dynamic of the Elemental Nations.

* * *

Author's Note: Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. This is the first of seven chapters that were written/rewritten/revised before I posted this story. I will not post them all at one time however. If I did that, I wouldn't get that many reviews on the early chapters.

Just in case you're wondering, I've set it so that the Mizuki Incident was on March 1st. This is the date that is referenced when something is said about when Naruto became a ninja. Orientation and the Bell Test were actually two weeks later, but I've always considered the Mizuki Incident as when he actually became a ninja. He did not actually pass the graduation exam, so his situation is a bit different than his classmates' in one respect, at least.

Oh, and I'm someone that likes seeing characters' stats, so I'll give updates regarding Naruto's stats every now and then. His starting stats for this story are below. The stats given in the Naruto Databooks have eight categories so the highest total amount you could possibly get is a 40. I am currently using the First Databook stats and categories for this entry. I may use something more detailed later on since the current one doesn't take into considering weapon skills, chakra control, fuinjutsu, juinkutsu, kenjutsu, senjutsu, etc.

Naruto Uzumaki

Ninjutsu- 2  
Taijutsu- 1.5  
Genjutsu- 1  
Intelligence- 1  
Strength- 2  
Speed- 2  
Stamina- 4  
Hand Signs- 1

Total- 14.5


	2. Preparations

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does.

* * *

**2****. Preparations**

As expected, Genma returned home the next afternoon and found a message in his apartment asking that he report to the Hokage's Office.

He had immediately headed there and was permitted entrance by the Hokage's secretary.

"Hello Genma, it's good to see that you received my message," the Hokage said as soon as he arrived. "I'm sure you know why I asked you to come here today."

"You asked me to come here after your ANBU saw me training Naruto Uzumaki," Genma said with a nod.

"That is correct. I must admit that I was surprised when I heard the news. I expected Kakashi or Iruka to be personally training him," Hiruzen said. "I understand that Kakashi is not an experienced sensei, so I am not too surprised that he hasn't turned his focus to Naruto yet. Teaching three students can be a challenge for the inexperienced. It was difficult to teach my own team years ago, so I understand all too well. But I must ask why you decided to train him."

"I found him on Hokage Mountain last night, lamenting his weakness. I've been there before when I lost comrades on missions in the past, so I recognized it. When he said that he did not know how to become strong because his sensei was too busy to help him, I wondered what _they_ would say if I could hear them from the other side. I felt that I owed it to the Fourth to help Naruto," Genma said, closing his eyes. "I intend to see this through the end. I will do everything in my power to help the Legacy of the Fourth Hokage become who he is meant to be."

"I can't say that I'm surprised. You were close to him," Hiruzen said, referring to the fact that Genma knew who Naruto truly was. The ANBU that were stationed nearby and overheard the conversation misunderstood what Genma meant by _the Legacy of the Fourth Hokage_. They merely thought that he was referring to Naruto as a jinchuriki.

"I was one of his bodyguards," Genma agreed.

"What do you think of him?" Hiruzen asked curiously.

"He's brash, loud, hyperactive, and so confident that it borders on arrogance," Genma said as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. He smiled before speaking again. "But he has incredible determination and understands the true value of strength. Given some time, he will be a great shinobi."

"And it terms of his skills?" Hiruzen asked.

"If we were to put him in dark colors, he might be able to sneak up on most of your ANBU," Genma said with a grin. "His speed and strength are impressive for a rookie genin, his stamina is as expected of someone with his condition, his chakra control is horrible, his taijutsu is impressive given that he received tips from Mizuki, his speed at forming hand signs is acceptable for a third year Academy student, and his skill at strategy is similar to an Akimichi's skill at dieting. He's pretty good at making up plans in the heat of the moment though."

Hiruzen merely nodded his head, having expected all of that.

"I'm not that impressed by his skill with ninjutsu though. He's good with the Shadow Clone Jutsu and the Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu, but he doesn't use it like a master would, which is strange since they are the only ninjutsu that he has above E-rank, unless you count his anti-pervert jutsu," Genma said with a twinkle in his eye that made the Hokage look away.

"I asked Kakashi not to reveal the information transfer aspect of the jutsu just yet. If he knows about it, then he will use it. Overusing it to train or gain experience is dangerous for someone his age. If you believe that you can get him to only use it in moderation, then you can reveal the truth about the jutsu to him. Make sure that he understands that overusing it before he is fifteen can permanently damage his mind though," Hiruzen said with a sigh.

"How did he not find out sooner?" Genma asked in confusion.

"He did not actually learn the Shadow Clone Jutsu from the Forbidden Scroll," Hiruzen said, surprising Genma. "It is not in the Forbidden Scroll as it is not Kinjutsu. The Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu is the one that is in the scroll. They are done the same way, and the scroll does explain the difference between them. However, the scroll assumes that the reader already knows the Shadow Clone Jutsu. Really, anyone can use the Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu without further instruction if they have the needed chakra and know its small-scale version. The only reason that the scroll even explained that it was a larger variation of the Shadow Clone Jutsu and how to use it was because all of our Kinjutsu are added to the scroll in that manner."

"Ah, that explains it. The full capabilities would not be explained if they assumed that the reader knew the Shadow Clone Jutsu first," Genma said thoughtfully. "There is another matter that I wish to ask about. I would like to motivate him with some information."

"Oh?" Hiruzen asked.

"I wish to inform Naruto about his clan but without going into specifics about its members," Genma said.

"As long as you don't reveal any S-class secrets in the process, you may do so," Hiruzen said with a nod of his head.

"I also want to know when you plan to reveal certain information to him. If I can set a goal for him and tell him that he'll find out the full truth… well, it would motivate him even more effectively," Genma said, remembering that the room was not completely secure from eavesdropping. Revealing Naruto's heritage in the conversation would have caused every ANBU in the village to know the truth within a couple hours.

"When he becomes Chunin, I will tell him," Hiruzen said after a moment of silence.

"With any luck, he'll know before he's thirteen then," Genma said with a genuine smile. He wanted Naruto to know the truth. They were fairly close when he was one of the Fourth Hokage's bodyguards, after all.

"You're that confident in him?" Hiruzen asked in surprise.

"Yes," Genma answered simply. "The next Chunin Selection Exams begin in July, if I'm not mistaken. I believe that he will be strong enough to at least make it to the finals, so long as he is nominated to take part in them in the first place."

"I look forward to seeing his progress," Hiruzen said. "You may go."

* * *

It was now the first day of June, meaning that Kakashi and his team had been back in the village for the last month.

During that time, the team had met for team training every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning at ten in the morning and they did a mission once every other Friday after training. Naruto knew that Kakashi has been training Sasuke every Tuesday and Thursday over the past month. He also knew that Kakashi had spoken with Sakura the previous day about him training her every Tuesday and Thursday of June, so it appeared that he would be training Naruto in July.

Personally, Naruto did not care one way or the other, which was a stark contrast to his previous position on not being trained by Kakashi.

He had never shown up on time to Kakashi's team training sessions. He showed up five minutes until ten every day, which was when Kakashi arrived. It made Sakura mad at him, but he mostly ignored her now. He had grown out of his crush for her after he started to take his training seriously. He did not dislike her, but she just was not someone that he was interested in that way anymore.

Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons, Naruto had begun to do D-rank missions at Genma's recommendation. He hated doing them, but Genma had brought up an interesting point. Kakashi had done one hundred and ninety-seven D-rank missions, Genma had done one hundred and eighty-five D-rank missions, and even the Fourth Hokage completed one hundred and twenty D-rank missions. He could deal with it if jonin-sensei, his personal sensei, and his idol all did so. Plus, it apparently looked better to clients if they saw a large number of successfully completed missions in a shinobi's file, especially if they did not have any failed missions or only had a few.

So Naruto had ended up doing thirty-six D-rank missions since becoming a genin, despite the fact that his team had only done six so far. In fact, he knew that they had not done any without him. He had actually asked about it.

Every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, Naruto trained with Genma from early in the morning until late in the afternoon. Once, Genma completely missed the weekend training sessions due to him going on a mission, but that was not a common occurrence. Genma did not need to do missions that often to make a good living.

As it was now a Friday where his team did not do any D-rank missions, Naruto was headed to the training ground for a training session with Genma. He normally would have gone to do another D-rank mission, but Genma had asked him to stop by the training grounds instead.

He idly wondered if Raido would be there again. Occasionally, Genma's friend Raido would help him out with training as well.

Upon arriving, Naruto saw that only Genma was there, though that did not disappoint him in the least.

"Hey Naruto, it's good to see you made it on time," Genma said as he glanced at him. "I see you're as orange as ever."

"And I see you're still eating needles," Naruto retorted dryly, earning a chuckle from his sensei.

"It's good to have plenty iron in your diet," Genma commented. "But enough of that. Last month, we worked on your chakra control, your physical combat capabilities, and those four jutsu that I taught you. Now, we're going to work on refining your abilities and mastering some more jutsu. By the end of the month, you should know a handful of new jutsu that are handy in a fight, though they are of a lower level than what I've already taught you. I'm cutting our training sessions down though. I will only be training you on Tuesdays and Thursdays now. Instead of it being nine in the morning until five in the afternoon, it will be from six in the morning until six in the afternoon. I want to use Saturdays and Sundays to do missions, to do some personal training, and to just relax. You can take some time to relax on the weekends yourself, do some more D-rank missions, or train without me."

"Thanks sensei. I appreciate everything you've done for me," Naruto said with a sincere smile. He had become fairly calm, at least in comparison to the old Naruto. Naturally, he was still cheerful, carefree, and easily excited, but he was also more serious, patient, and intelligent. It was hard for Genma to believe that it had only been a month since he began his training.

"Today will be the last day that I train you that is not on a Tuesday or Thursday, so let's begin," Genma said as he pulled a small square piece of paper out of his flak jacket.

* * *

At that same time, in a meeting room in the Administration Building, Hiruzen Sarutobi was sitting before a group of individuals. Among those individuals were Homura Mitkado, Koharu Utatane, Shikaku Nara, Inoichi Yamanaka, Choza Akimichi, Tsume Inuzuka, Shibi Aburame, Hiashi Hyuga, and Kurenai Yuhi.

All of the individuals present looked somewhat uneasy. While it was common enough for the Advisory Council, which consisted of Homura and Koharu, to be summoned before the Hokage, it was somewhat rare for the Advisory Council, the heads of the Three Noble Clans, the Jonin Commander, two additional heads of prominent clans, and a fairly new jonin to all be summoned before the Hokage at once.

"I'm sure you're all wondering why you're here before me today," Hiruzen said as he exhaled some smoke through his pipe. "The answer is simple enough. Fourteen days ago, we received a message through courier from the Hidden Cloud Village." Hiashi Hyuga visibly tensed at that. "Back when we signed a treaty with them, the Raikage insisted on one particular term that no one thought much of. I forgot about it, in fact. That term was that the Hidden Cloud Village could participate in any Chunin Exam we hosted at their request, despite not being an actual ally. The Raikage has requested to take part in the Chunin Exams that we will be hosting in July."

The room grew silent at that for a short time. It was hard to believe that something like that was happening, especially for certain people like Hiashi, who had good reason to not want to have to see any Cloud ninja ever again.

"I intended on denying the request, but to do so would be a violation of our treaty. However, I have succeeded in convincing the Raikage to only send one team of genin to the Chunin Exams," Hiruzen said before an outburst could be made. "As many of you know, the Hidden Cloud Village has come to our village with ulterior motives before. It would not be a great surprise if this was a similar situation. It should not need saying, but you should all be on guard when they arrive during the last week of this month. It is for this reason that I've asked you all here. This could potentially affect any of the major clans of the village, especially the Hyuga clan."

"So that's why I'm here," Kurenai said as she realized what the connection was between her and the current situation: Hinata Hyuga.

"Yes," Hiruzen said as he nodded in confirmation.

"After what they pulled, they have the gall to make demands based on that treaty?" Tsume asked with a growl. "They should be put in their place."

"We have no way of knowing if that was even an authorized mission," Shibi suddenly said. "All that can be made on that matter is speculation. It should just be left in the past. Allowing past grievances to cloud your eyes will only blind you to the present and future."

"I agree," Hiashi said, though he sounded extremely tired. "Focusing on today and tomorrow will be more productive than focusing on yesterday."

"Do we know who the jonin that is coming to the village with the teams is?" Shikaku asked, changing the direction of the conversation.

"The jonin's name is Darui," Hiruzen said as he looked at his Jonin Commander.

"I've heard of Darui before," Shikaku said with a frown. "He was the student of the Third Raikage, wasn't he?"

"Yes, he's the only known user of the Third Raikage's Black Lightning too," Hiruzen said as he nodded his head. "I don't have anything on the genin that are coming at the present, but you will all be kept posted. For now, you are dismissed."

A chorus of "Understood, Lord Hokage," rang through the room as everyone other than Kurenai Yuhi rose to their feet.

Once everyone but Hiruzen and Kurenai had left, the Hokage said, "I expected you would remain."

"I'm worried about my student, even if _he_ isn't," Kurenai said with a frown. It was obvious who the _he_ was that she was referring to.

"It's understandable that you would worry for your student," Hiruzen said with a small smile. "I remember what it was like to be a sensei, though I was still the Hokage at that time."

"The Sannin," Kurenai said quietly, clearly thinking back to what she knew of the Third Hokage's only students.

"That is what they became," Hiruzen said with a reflective smile. "But they were just a few brats back when I got them." His tone grew somber at that. "It's a shame that none of them are in the village any longer."

"If Lord Jiraiya or Lady Tsunade were here, the Hidden Cloud Village would not dare try anything," Kurenai said, taking a different train of thought than the Hokage had.

"You could say that, but it's for no such reason that I wish that my students were here," Hiruzen said with a grim smile. He had always loved all three of his students, even when Tsunade forsook the Senju name and Orochimaru did what he did.

"I apologize for my thoughtlessness," Kurenai said sincerely.

"It's fine. You're just worried for Hinata Hyuga," Hiruzen said with a shake of his head. "I placed her on your team for a reason. While she would have been better protected under Kakashi or my son, she needs a strong female role model. With you, I'm sure she's growing far more than she would under either one of them. Even so, you should work your team harder than you have been now that the Hidden Cloud Village is taking part in the Chunin Exams, especially if you intend to let them compete."

Kurenai looked as though she had just been blindsided.

"Yes, I know about your intentions to enter them in the Chunin Exams, despite their inexperience and the trouble they've had with certain missions. You should take care to keep your conversations with Anko private, unless you wish for them to become common knowledge," Hiruzen said with a hint of amusement. "Don't worry though. I am not against your idea. Even if they don't pass the test, it would be useful for them to get the experience. Few genin pass on their first attempt."

"Thank you, Lord Hokage," Kurenai rose to her feet. "I must go and meet with my team if that's alright with you."

Hiruzen simply nodded as he puffed on his pipe.

* * *

In the Hidden Cloud Village, A was sitting at his desk, looking at the three genin that were standing in front of the door.

He had intended on sending three teams of genin to compete in the Chunin Exams, but he had allowed the Hokage to have his way this time. It was understandable that the village was still sore about the Hyuga Affair. Perhaps he could have handled it better at the time. His father had been the one to actually plan the theft of the Byakugan. As it turned out, he died before it carried out but after he gave the order to go through with the mission. As a result, A had only been the Fourth Raikage for a month when he had to deal with the incident, and his inexperience in the position had made things rather difficult, especially since he had not known about the secret mission until after he demanded the body of Hiashi Hyuga for the murder of one of his shinobi.

That was the only reason that he was willing to agree to Hiruzen Sarutobi's request. It was also the only reason that he did not do anything when the Hidden Leaf Village tried to deceive them with the body of Hizashi Hyuga.

Taking a deep breath, he spoke to the genin in the room.

"Samui, Omoi, and Karui, I have asked you here today to give you a special mission. If you succeed with this mission, you will be promoted to the rank of chunin," A said, earning their full, undivided attention. "The mission is simple. You are to compete in the Chunin Selection Exams in the Hidden Leaf Village. While there, you are to get a basic understanding of the village's layout in case it is needed at a later point, you are to determine which competitors we should be mindful of in the future, you are to test the capabilities of the last loyal member of the Uchiha clan, and you are to observe the genin known as Naruto Uzumaki. I wish to know everything that is relevant about him as if you were viewing him as an enemy or an ally. If you determine that he is a threat to our village, you are to see to it that he dies during the Chunin Exams. That does not include a situation where a war breaks out. He is the jinchuriki of the Kyubi, so if a war were to break out between us, it would be expected for him to be a threat in such a situation. Do you accept this mission?"

"Yes sir," Samui said, lowering her head.

"Yes sir," Karui and Omoi said in unison.

"Regardless of how you do in the Chunin Exams, I will grant you a field promotion if you succeed in this mission. Keep in mind that the main objective is Naruto Uzumaki," A said, pleased that they accepted the mission.

"Sir, what exactly are we looking for when determining if he is a threat to our village?" Samui asked.

"I am not concerned about his power or skill when I say that he is to be dealt with if he becomes a threat," A explained. "Personality and attitude are important here. If he's insane or unstable, kill him. If he wants to conquer the world of destroy any village, kill him. If you believe that he would actually harm our village without being ordered to by the Hokage or without us doing something to provoke him, act accordingly. After all, while we may be trying to ensure that he does not become an enemy of ours, it would be much better to gain him as an ally through a stronger alliance than to kill him."

"Understood," Samui said, looking up. "Who will our captain be?"

"Darui will go with you and act as your jonin-sensei," A answered. "You will not be going on any missions outside of the village until it's time to go to the Hidden Leaf Village. Be careful not to get injured before then. Finding a replacement for one of you would be nearly impossible. You are the only genin in the village with experience with jinchuriki, and you are also the strongest genin in the village. You are now dismissed."

With that, the three genin left A to his paperwork.

* * *

Author's Note: Thanks for reading and reviewing.

As you may have guessed, I kept Naruto's training fairly secret to make things more exciting when he fights. He will only learn ten jutsu from Genma before the Chunin Exams. Keep in mind that I'm not including improvements to his taijutsu, chakra control, or any other area when I talk about how many jutsu he has.

Also, by the end of this chapter, Naruto does know about the Uzumaki clan, their connection to the Senju clan, their skill with fuinjutsu, the fact that the First Hokage married an Uzumaki, the meaning behind the whirlpool insignia on the uniforms and flak jackets of Leaf ninja, and the fate of the Uzumaki clan. He does not know the name of his mother or about the previous jinchuriki of the Kyubi, however.


	3. The Chunin Exams

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does.

* * *

**3. The Chunin Exams**

Early in the morning on the twenty-fourth of June, Hiruzen Sarutobi stood before various jonin, special jonin, and chunin in a large meeting room.

Clearing his throat, he said, "I am sure that the reason for which you have been called here is obvious, given the time of the year."

Realization seemed to dawn among many of the men and women present at that moment, making it clear that they had forgotten anything at all was happening at that time of the year.

"It is time for the Chunin Selection Exams, and we will be hosting them," Hiruzen said as he looked amongst the crowd. "This year, we will have a special guest too… the Hidden Cloud Village."

Looks of shock were clear on the faces of those not already informed of it.

"The Hidden Sand Village has submitted applications for ten teams, the Hidden Rain Village has done so for seven teams, the Hidden Grass Village has done so for five teams, the Hidden Waterfall Village has done so for four teams, the Hidden Cloud Village has done so for a single team, and the newly established Hidden Sound Village has done so for a single team. This brings the total number of foreign genin competing to ninety," Hiruzen said with a puff of his pipe. "All ninety of these genin and their jonin-sensei will be arriving within the next week. You're being informed of this now because some of them will be arriving as early as today."

Quite a few people were stunned by the suddenness.

"When does it begin?" Kakashi asked, remaining calm as expected.

"The Chunin Exams will begin seven days from today on the first day of July," Hiruzen answered. "Now, I would like Kakashi Hatake, Kurenai Yuhi, and Asuma Sarutobi to step forward. As you are the three jonin in charge of the teams of rookie genin, I give you the choice of whether or not you would like to nominate any of your genin first. Keep in mind that the only requirement to nominating them is that they have completed at least eight missions. It is generally recommended that they have done twice that."

Kakashi Hatake stepped forward, appearing to form the Seal of Confrontation as he spoke. "I, Kakashi Hatake, am the jonin in charge of Team Seven, composed of Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, and Naruto Uzumaki. I nominate all three of my students for the Chunin Selection Exams."

Naturally, his words shocked nearly everyone as he took a step back, returning to the line that he formed with the other jonin-sensei.

Genma, who was standing towards the back of the room, was not surprised by the nomination, though he was a bit disappointed that Kakashi would nominate them when he had not even aided in Naruto's training yet. As it was, Kakashi was not even aware that Naruto had been receiving personal training from anyone.

Then, Kurenai stepped forward and formed the Seal of Confrontation before she spoke. "I, Kurenai Yuhi, am the jonin in charge of Team Eight, composed of Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuga, and Kiba Inuzuka. I nominate all three of my students for the Chunin Selection Exams."

Even more people were shocked by her nominations than Kakashi. After all, they had mostly been surprised by Kakashi's nomination because Naruto Uzumaki was on his team. They expected the Last Uchiha to be very skilled, after all.

However, hearing that an unmarked Hyuga had been nominated in the Chunin Exams when the Hidden Cloud Village was taking part was somewhat of a bigger deal than the dead-last being nominated.

And then, Asuma stepped forward and formed the Seal of Confrontation before he spoke. "I, Asuma Sarutobi, am the jonin in charge of Team Ten, composed of Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Choji Akimichi. I nominate all three of my students for the Chunin Selection Exams."

The nomination of three rookie genin teams back to back had everyone present shocked. Even the Hokage was a little surprised.

"Hold on a second!" Iruka Umino said.

"Yes Iruka?" Hiruzen asked calmly.

"I was the sensei of all nine of those genin four months ago," Iruka said, trying to remain calm. "I will agree that they are all skilled shinobi, but they're not ready. They've only been genin since March. No matter how far they've come, there is no way that they are ready for this. The Chunin Exams can be deadly. I cannot understand what these three jonin are thinking."

"I was a chunin when I was half as old as Naruto," Kakashi said with a shake of his head. "And I was not a genin for too much longer than Naruto has been either. He'll be fine."

"Naruto isn't like you," Iruka said, nearly yelling. "None of them are like you. They are not ready for this."

"We'll be the judge of that," Kakashi said sternly. "Naruto and the others are not your students any longer. They are soldiers under our command. It is not your place to question our decisions."

"Perhaps you should listen to him, my Eternal Rival," Guy said as he walked up and placed a hand on Iruka's shoulder. "I can understand the youthful drive to have your genin compete with my own, but maybe it would be for the best if you had them wait a year like I did."

"Hmm? Did you say something?" Kakashi asked as he looked at Guy as though he had just seen him.

Before Guy could rant about Kakashi being cool, Hiruzen cleared his throat. "That is enough. I will let the nominations stand. As jonin, I trust their word. I will now begin taking nominations for the older teams of genin."

Iruka grimaced at that, but he could not say anything. The Hokage had spoken, after all.

* * *

"Damn, when did he get so good at that?" Naruto muttered under his breath as he walked down the street, rubbing his eyes.

He had decided to play ninja with Konohamaru and his friends, Udon and Moegi. He did not have anything more important to do at that moment. After all, Kakashi had interrupted his original plans by sending a message saying that the team had a meeting at one in the afternoon, and he did not want to exhaust himself before the meeting by training.

Of course, playing with a bunch of kids did not bother him in the least, despite how most genin would have felt. He did not have much of a childhood as it was, and playing ninja with Konohamaru and his friends was relieving.

Still, he did not expect Konohamaru to get him with a black egg. He barely even knew what a black egg was. Since the invention of the more smoke bombs and other such bombs, the use of black eggs had fallen into disfavor, even though they were a little more versatile.

He remembered Iruka briefly going over what a black egg was in class a while back, and it did have the potential to be useful for pranks. However, it sounded like too much work. First, a hole had to be made in the top of the egg carefully so that it did not crack the shell. Then, the contents of the egg had to be poured out. Next, the empty egg shell had to be filled with something- In Konohamaru's case, it had been a mixture of pepper juice and lemon juice. After that, the hole in the egg shell had to be closed up. And finally, the egg had to be painted black to make it look more obscure.

After he had found Konohamaru, the boy hit him in the face with the black egg, blinding him and giving him a chance to get away.

At that point, Naruto was not even sure where Konohamaru was. He had stopped to wash his eyes out before he chased after him again.

A yell suddenly filled his ears.

"Let me go, you jackass!"

Naruto immediately jumped to the rooftop next to him and made his way to the source of the yell. It appeared that a boy with a black kabuki-styled suit on was holding Konohamaru into the air by his shirt.

"Why should I, you little punk?" the older boy said. "You just ran into me without even saying sorry."

"Let him go!" Udon yelled as he ran up to the scene.

"Yeah, you big meanie!" Moegi yelled as she stopped next to him.

Naruto jumped from the rooftop and landed between Konohamaru's friends and the boy that held Konohamaru. He immediately took note of the hour-glass shaped emblem on the boy's forehead protector and on the forehead protector that was tied around the neck of a girl a few yards away from him.

"Naruto!" Konohamaru and his friends exclaimed as they saw him.

"Drop Konohamaru or I'm going to kick your sandy ass," Naruto said as he formed the tiger hand sign.

"Like you could," the male Sand ninja said with a snort. "You're just a little baby genin. You can't lay a hand on me."

"That's nice to know," Naruto said as a kunai was pressed to the Sand ninja's throat.

Konohamaru appeared to be shocked as he saw that a second Naruto was standing behind the Sand ninja that was holding him up.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and I specialize in kicking ass," Naruto said with a grin. "You might want to let go of him before I decide to get serious."

"That's it, you're getting your ass kicked," the Sand ninja suddenly said as he elbowed the second Naruto in the center of his chest, dispelling him. He then threw Konohamaru at Naruto and removed a large bandaged object from his back.

Before Konohamaru reached Naruto, a second Naruto materialized next to him in a cloud of smoke, caught the Academy Student, and took refuge behind the real Naruto, fully aware of what was going to happen.

Naruto inhaled a deep breath as his hands quickly shifted through a few hand signs.

_Try this one of for size. Wind Style: Drilling Air Bullet._

He exhaled a fairly small ball of air that shot towards the Sand ninja at that. While it was roughly the same size as his fist, it was a mistake for someone to underestimate it.

Before it could hit the Sand ninja, however, the Sand kunoichi removed a battle fan from her back and swung it, releasing a wind jutsu of her own to push Naruto's technique just enough that it missed her comrade. Instead of it hitting him, it hit the tree behind him and exploded, leaving a fist sized hole in the tree with jagged edges.

"Kankuro, stop being an idiot," the kunoichi chastised her comrade with a scowl. This guy might be able to kick your ass. His wind jutsu is strong enough that you would have to be rushed to the hospital if you were hit by it. What are you thinking?"

"Don't worry about it, Temari. I can take him," the one now known as Kankuro said.

"What do you think you're doing?" a chilling voice asked, filling the area.

Everyone's attention turned to a red-headed Sand genin with a gourd on his back walking up from behind Kankuro and Temari.

"Kankuro, you're an embarrassment. Stop or I'll kill you."

"Yes G-Gaara," Kankuro said with a nervous gulp.

"Did Baki-sensei get our rooms arranged yet?" Temari asked, sounding cautious.

"Yes," Gaara said as he looked at Naruto. "He requests our presence, so we have somewhere to be. But first… what is your name?"

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki."

"Very well then, Naruto Uzumaki," Gaara said as he turned and walked away. "We will meet again."

And with that, all three Sand genin left, leaving Naruto gawking.

"What in the hell is going on?" he muttered. "And why are Sand ninja in the village in the first place? Oh yeah, Genma-sensei said that the Chunin Exams would be coming up soon. Maybe they're here for that."

"That was awesome, Boss!" Konohamaru exclaimed, breaking him from his train of though. "I had no idea you were so strong. Why didn't you show me that jutsu before?"

"It's not a good jutsu to show people," Naruto said with a chuckle. "I think I overloaded it again. It's not really supposed to do that much damage."

"Do you know anymore cool jutsu?" Konohamaru asked in excitement.

"Yeah, you could say that," Naruto said with a grin. "Maybe I'll teach you guys one… but you have to buy me lunch."

"You mean it?" Konohamaru asked. His friends seemed just as excited as he was. When Naruto nodded, he said, "Awesome! I'll find Gramps and get some money then!"

Naruto just grinned, more than happy to get out of paying for his lunch when he knew that he would be teaching Konohamaru and his friends the jutsu no matter what.

"Meet me at our training spot," Naruto said before he disappeared in a flicker of leaves, making his way to the place where he had taught Konohamaru the Sexy Jutsu.

"Sure thing!" Konohamaru yelled.

* * *

After spending a couple of hours teaching Konohamaru and the others the Shadow Shuriken Jutsu, Naruto was treated to four large bowls of ramen. At that point, he went and waited at the usual meeting spot for Kakashi.

Surprisingly enough, Kakashi was only fifteen minutes late for once.

Upon arriving, Kakashi pulled out a few pieces of paper from the inside of his vest.

"Sorry that I'm late. The meeting ran over," Kakashi said with an eye-smile. It seemed that he had actually given a logical explanation for once. "The Chunin Selection Exams are taking place in the Hidden Leaf Village this time."

"So that is why those ninja from the Hidden Sand are in the village," Naruto said, pleased to finally have his guess confirmed.

"Did you ask anyone why they were there?" Kakashi asked as he cocked his head to the side.

"No," Naruto answered, a little unsure of whether that was the right or wrong answer.

Kakashi sighed at the answer. "Given the circumstances, it is okay, but what if they were not authorized to be here? You should have at least asked a chunin or jonin about it. Seeing them and doing nothing is negligent," Kakashi said.

"Oh," Naruto said, feeling a little embarrassed.

"Anyways, I nominated you three for the Chunin Exams," Kakashi continued. "If you wish to compete and potentially get promoted to chunin, then you'll need to complete these applications and turn them in on the first of July. You'll need to go to room two-oh-one at eight in the morning to turn them in. Until the Chunin Exams are over, we will not be meeting for training or missions."

"Kakashi-sensei," Sakura said as she looked at everyone nervously.

I'm only talking about team training sessions," Kakashi said as he jumped down to the bridge where his team was. He then realized that Naruto was looking at him pointedly.

"Okay," Sakura said, looking at Sasuke with a hint of worry, though he seemed to not notice. She had a tendency to worry as to how he would react to things that should not have concerned her so much, like her receiving private training when he was not.

"Naruto, I wish I had been able to help you, but the Chunin Exams came around before I could," Kakashi said apologetically.

Naruto did not say anything. He just stared at him, doing his best to look bored without blinking. It was something that Genma told him would work wonders in situations like that.

"Here you go," Kakashi said a moment later as he passed out the applications. He was unsure as to how to react to Naruto's reaction. "I'll see you later."

With that, he disappeared in a cloud of smoke. As soon as he was gone, Sakura turned to say something to Naruto but saw that he was gone as well.

* * *

An hour later, Naruto could not help but smile. He had gone to his normal training ground to get in all the practice that he could before the Chunin Exams. Within ten minutes of arriving, Genma showed up.

"Scratch the original plan," Genma said as he approached Naruto. "I was at the meeting where you were nominated for the Chunin Exams, so I thought I'd offer to train you for the next week. Let's start at eight every morning instead of six though. Six twelve hour training sessions in one week would be difficult. Six ten hour training sessions is a lot easier to pull off."

"That sounds good to me," Naruto said with a grin.

"I'm glad," Genma said with a smirk. "Don't forget the agreement you made. Only genin that are attempting to become chunin take the Chunin Exams. That means that it has the same priority as a C-rank mission, if not a B-rank one."

Naruto groaned at that as he found that he could not argue with Genma.

Shortly after his training under the Special Jonin began, Genma had fought him several sets of clothing that did not have any orange in them. He made Naruto promise that he would wear them on every mission that was at least C-rank, but he could wear his orange clothes on D-rank missions, when he was training, and when he was relaxing.

"Sometimes I hate you," he muttered under his breath.

"Just wait until word gets out that one of the Fourth Hokage's bodyguards has been training you. All of your old classmates are going to be jealous. Kakashi's probably going to blow a fuse when he learns that I've trained you for two months without him noticing," Genma chuckled.

"Am I allowed to use my sword?" Naruto suddenly asked.

"If you want to bring it, seal it in a scroll," Genma said, becoming more serious. "Don't carry it on you in the open though. You've spent close to fifty hours training under with Raido in kenjutsu, and you're not bad at it, but anyone who shows up there with a sword on their back or at their hip will have at least three times the practice with a sword that you have. I'd recommend sticking with taijutsu and kunai as far as close combat fighting goes. Remember that a master with a pebble will beat a novice with a shuriken any day, so it would be a better idea to use an inferior weapon that you have more experience with, like kunai, than a superior weapon that you have little experience with, like your sword."

"I guess I'll hold off on it," Naruto said with a sigh. He was looking forward to using it, but he had to agree with what Genma said. Most people that were intending to learn to use a sword would train for around four hours a day at most. He had less experience with a sword than someone who trained for thirteen days at the four hours a day limit for training.

"Don't mope. It doesn't suit you," Genma said as he dropped into a taijutsu stance. "Come at me and show me how much you've improved.

* * *

As Naruto made his way back to his apartment that evening, he was unsure as to whether he really wanted to train with Genma for the next six days or not. As it turned out, Genma did not believe that Naruto needed anymore jutsu right now. Naruto had learned ten jutsu since beginning to train under Genma, and that seemed to be enough in the Special Jonin's mind.

Instead, Genma had pointed something important out to Naruto. The ability to perform a jutsu did not equal mastery of the jutsu. And even if he could use a jutsu without wasting any chakra, he would not necessarily know the best ways to utilize it in a fight.

So, Genma had made Naruto fight him for four hours straight. Naturally, Genma held back during the entire fight, consistently using only enough of his abilities to stay one step ahead of Naruto. Simply put, Genma was giving Naruto battle experience.

"Watch where you're going, jackass!"

Naruto blinked as he took notice of his surroundings. He had been thinking about the training and had gotten lost in thought. As a result, he had run into someone with his shoulder, it seemed.

The person in question was a dark-skinned girl with red hair that fell to her shoulder blades and topaz colored eyes. She had on a white bandana-style forehead protector on with a symbol that he had never seen before, a sleeveless black shirt that appeared to be longer on the left side than the right, and a long black skirt. Perhaps the most eye-catching thing about her was the white and red katana that hung from her back by a white cord.

He soon took notice of a dark-skinned boy looking at him curiously. He had short, spiky white hair and dark eyes. In addition to that, he had on a black forehead protector with the same emblem as the girl, a black long sleeve shirt with a hood attached to it, black pants, and katana identical to the girl's slung over his back.

"Sorry about that," Naruto said, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. "I guess I got lost in thought."

"That's a dangerous habit," the sword-wearing boy said as he removed a lollipop from its wrapper and stuck it in his mouth. "You could accidentally bump into a maniacal shinobi who brings back the dead to reap vengeance on you."

Naruto wanted to laugh. He really did. That just sounded insane. For some reason, he could only nod and say, "Right… I'll remember that."

"Shut up Omoi," the girl said angrily. "This jackass ran into me. I don't want to hear your insane theories."

"I said I was sorry," Naruto said nervously. Time around Sakura taught him to do his best not to incur the wrath of a female. "I guess I just got lost on the road to life."

A chill ran down his spine as Naruto sensed that he suddenly made someone's day.

"You're so lucky we're here for the Chunin Exams or I'd wipe that smug look off your face," the girl said, looking even angrier.

"I look smug?" Naruto asked in confusion. He turned to the boy named Omoi at that. "Do I really look smug?"

"Omoi, if you answer that, you'll regret it," the girl interrupted.

"It's not cool to try to start fights, Karui."

Naruto's eyes wandered to the source of the new voice.

Unlike the ones he now knew as Omoi and Karui, the individual that just showed up had light skin, short blond hair that was longer at the front than the back, and exotic looking blue eyes. In addition to that, she had a short sleeve black shirt styled similarly to Karui's but was low cut, a mesh top underneath her shirt that was only visible thanks to the low cut top, red wristbands that covered half of her forearms, a red girdle-type garment that was the same color as her wristbands and covered her stomach, a black-banded forehead protector that was worn like a belt over the girdle, a black skirt that stopped halfway to her knees, and black sandals that went up halfway to her knees. It appeared as though she had a black tanto attached to the back of her girdle horizontally as well, though he could not be too sure.

Naruto's mind strayed a bit when he first saw her. While Omoi and Karui looked to be the same age as that girl, he would not have guessed her to be any less than two years older than her. She was definitely more developed than any of the girls that he graduated with, along with being more attractive.

"Are you Naruto Uzumaki?" the blonde asked, surprising him.

"Yeah, have you heard of me?" Naruto asked. He immediately took notice of how Omoi and Karui lost their composure at hearing who he was.

"Yes, our commanding officer visited the Land of Waves not long ago," she answered with a calm and collected tone. "You were well spoken of there. I am told that they view you as a hero and have even named a bridge after you."

"Yeah, I'm pretty awesome," Naruto said with a grin, though he was actually quite shocked by that. "What village are you guys from anyways? I've never seen that emblem."

"The Hidden Cloud Village," the blonde answered before either of her teammates could say anything. "It is no surprise that you are unfamiliar with it. Our villages have a treaty, but we are not actually allies. We are, however, taking part in the Chunin Exams."

"Wow, now I just need to meet someone from the Hidden Rock Village and I'll know someone from all five villages," Naruto said, remembering what Kakashi said about the Five Great Ninja Villages before they arrived in the Land of Waves. "Oh yeah… what's your name? You know mine, and I know your teammates' names, but…."

"Samui," the blonde answered. "It has been a pleasure meeting you, Naruto Uzumaki. Perhaps we shall meet again before the Chunin Exams."

"No matter what, I'll see you guys in the exams," Naruto said with a grin. "I'm the best Leaf genin in the village."

"I'm sure you are," Samui said as she walked away. "Come on. Captain Darui is waiting for us."

"Right," Omoi and Karui said in sync as they followed after her.

"She's pretty… cool," Naruto said, though the last word seemed to be added on as an afterthought when he realized they were not out of earshot.

With that, he headed away from the area, his mind still on the unreadable kunoichi named Samui.

* * *

"You seemed friendly with him," Omoi said thoughtfully as he walked alongside Samui and Karui down the street. "You're not falling for him are you? What if you two fall madly for each other, war is declared between our villages, and you must decide between betraying your home and your love before one can kill you?"

Samui looked at him blankly. No emotion was evident in her eyes, but the void of emotion in her eyes was even more effective than any emotion could have been. It was as though she froze him cold.

"You have not forgotten our assignment, have you?" Samui asked rhetorically. Her next words were spoken so quietly that only they could hear them. "He is the one. We must learn more about him so that we can determine if he actually presents a threat."

"And what do you think so far?" Omoi asked.

"He is… interesting," Samui answered. "Do not mistake his rather unique personality for that of a weakling though. That would not be cool at all. It is said that Jiraiya of the Sannin behaves in an even more peculiar way, and we all know how vast his power is."

Omoi nodded, remembering how Darui had briefed them on every Leaf shinobi worthy of mention back when they were given the assignment.

"Did you guys sense his chakra?" Karui asked.

"We were all within two yards of him," Samui said, looking at Karui intently. "If we could not sense a vast source of chakra from so close, then there would be an issue."

Karui looked rather sheepish at that.

"Honestly, you two wear me out," Samui said with a sigh. "Still, you did a good job, even if running into him was an accident."

Omoi nodded, though he had to agree that it was an accident that they ran into him, though he doubted that it was an accident that Samui found him. While he and Karui had been genin for a single year, Samui had been one for two years. She was by far the most capable member of their team, and they all knew that.

_This will be an interesting event. That's for sure._

* * *

Author's Note: Thanks for reading and reviewing.

And just in case you're wondering, Samui is eighteen months older than Naruto in this story. As such, she's fourteen while Naruto is three months away from turning thirteen. Omoi has been fourteen for a month and Karui will be turning fourteen in two months. Samui graduated when she was 11 while her teammates graduated when they were 12, which is how she's been a genin a year longer than they have been.


	4. Start of the Chunin Exams

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does.

* * *

**4. Start of the Chunin Exams**

As it turned out, Naruto only ended up training with Genma for five of the six days before the start of the Chunin Exams. He had trained with Raido for the sixth day after telling Genma about the Cloud shinobi and the swords that each member of the team wore. Genma had agreed that it was important for him to be prepared to face a skilled swordsman (or swordswoman), so he Naruto fought Raido for ten hours on the final day.

It was actually interesting how Genma's schedule seem to fail on the first full day of training. They were supposed to train for ten hours a day, including the time they spent eating and catching their breath. However, they never trained for less than ten hours even when those things were excluded.

Still, Naruto felt that he had improved a great deal from his training.

But now, it was time to see how big of an impression he could make on everyone.

Looking in the mirror, Naruto had to agree that his new clothes were an improvement over what he normally wore. His normal orange and blue attire had been replaced with black sandals, black pants, a sleeveless black shirt with a crimson whirlpool emblem on the front of it, crimson wristbands with a black seal on each one, and a black banded forehead protector. The only thing that remained the same was the plate of his forehead protector, and he would not want that replaced. It was originally Iruka's originally.

Glancing around the room, he saw the final thing he was looking for. The seals on his wristbands held all the kunai and shuriken he could need, but he still needed the new hip pouch that he had gotten. Unlike the normal tan ones, it was crimson and was filled with nothing but explosive tags and scrolls.

Once he found the hip pouch, he attached it behind him on his left side so that it would be easy to reach.

"It's time," Naruto said aloud as he made his way to the door and headed to meet up with Sasuke and Sakura.

* * *

Much to Naruto's disappointment, his teammates did not seem to notice the change in his attire. Frankly, Naruto suspected that the only way to get Sakura's attention would be to transform into Sasuke and to start stripping. He really hoped that she got over being a fan girl soon. Quite frankly, it was annoying.

Sasuke, on the other hand, probably noticed the change but just did not same anything because he was too busy brooding.

He sighed as they walked down the hallway towards the room where they were supposed to turn their applications in. There had been some kind of hidden test on the second floor where people were tricked into thinking a different room was the right one, but they had avoided it due to Sakura's suggestion.

Moments like that gave Naruto hope that she could be redeemed.

His train of thought was broken as they walked through a large arena-like room that seemed oddly misplaced in the Academy.

"Are you Sasuke Uchiha?" a loud voice asked as they reached the center of the room.

Looking up, Naruto saw a boy in a green spandex jumpsuit standing on the balcony that surrounded the room.

"Who's asking?" Sasuke asked as he looked at the genin.

"My name is Rock Lee, and I challenge you to a fight," the boy said as he did a front flip off of the balcony and landed gracefully. He proceeded to make a "come hither" motion with his hand as he dropped into a taijutsu stance.

"We only have fifteen minutes," Sakura said as she looked at Sasuke.

"You want to fight me, even knowing who I am?" Sasuke asked, not paying attention to Sakura. He was still shocked by the notion that someone would actively seek to fight the last Uchiha.

"Yes, that is correct," the boy named Rock Lee said with a nod. "Do you accept?"

"Why do you want to fight him?" Naruto asked, clearly annoyed. "I'm the strongest one on our team. You should want to fight me."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at that. "You shouldn't make empty boasts like that, Naruto. But still, I agree that he should fight you. After all, he doesn't stand a chance against me if he can't beat you."

"You will fight me when I defeat your comrade?" Lee asked. Sasuke nodded at that. "Very well then. I shall fight you. May I know your name first?"

Needless to say, Naruto was close to losing his temper at the way he was so casually being dismissed.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm going to kick your ass."

* * *

Unbeknownst to Naruto and his companions, Samui and her teammates were standing on the balcony, watching what was going on. A low level genjutsu surrounded them, obscuring them quite nicely. It would have definitely been noticed if Sasuke or Sakura looked up at it, but their eyes were focused on the fight.

"This will be interesting," Samui said quietly as she watched Naruto drop into a taijutsu stance as his teammates backed away so that Naruto could fight Lee.

"Who do you think will win?" Omoi asked.

"I do not make estimations with an insignificant amount of information," Samui said without shifting her focus at all.

* * *

Lee opened the fight with a punch that would have been easy to block in time.

However, Genma had told him all about Might Guy and his protégé, Rock Lee. He knew that he was not as fast as Lee, though he may have been as strong.

"Shunshin," Naruto whispered as he formed the ram hand sign.

Lee looked bewildered as Naruto used the simple jutsu move just far enough out of the way so that his punch missed.

Naruto suddenly brought his left fist up as Lee's punch was passing by him. He hit Lee in the chin with an uppercut, lifting him off the ground with its force. He then slammed his left fist into Lee's abdomen with all of his strength, sending Lee flying back.

He immediately started to mentally curse as he took note of how Lee had only been lifted a foot off the ground by his punch and how he had not been knocked back as far as he should have been.

Lee was wearing weights, and Naruto knew that they had to be heavy. It was the only way that his attacks would have been so ineffective.

"You are strong," Lee said as he rose back to his feet. "I was wrong to dismiss you, but you are not the one that I truly wish to fight."

"Then finish me," Naruto said, using the Shunshin once again. This time, he appeared behind Lee though.

"Very well," Lee said as he spun around and punched Naruto.

"Bad move," Naruto said from behind Sasuke and Sakura. Before anyone could turn to look at him, the Naruto that Lee punched exploded with the force of an explosive note, sending Lee flying back. "This fight's over. That's only a quarter of its full strength. If I didn't hold back on my Shadow Clone Explosion, it would have caused major damage."

"I concede defeat," Lee said quietly, shocked that he had been defeated by his fellow dead-last, especially one that was a year younger than he was.

"Shadow Clone Explosion?" Sasuke asked in surprise. "Where did you learn that?" He knew that Kakashi had not started to teach Naruto personally yet, so the fact that the blond haired boy knew the technique was a surprise. It was an A-rank jutsu, after all.

"Kakashi isn't the only elite ninja that knows how to train genin," Naruto said simply. "Come on, let's hurry up."

With that, he walked away, letting Sasuke and Sakura follow him. They were starting to see him in a new light after a display like that.

* * *

Once Lee finally left the room as well, Samui dropped the genjutsu that had been covering them.

"It would seem that there is more than meets the eye regarding Naruto Uzumaki," she noted.

"When did he create that explosive shadow clone?" Karui asked, still shocked after what she saw.

"He created it when he used Shunshin the second time," Samui answered. "He used Shunshin to get out of sight, created the clone, had it Shunshin behind his opponent, and he used Shunshin to appear behind his teammates a moment later. He has experience at fighting. That much is obvious."

"Shadow Clone Explosion is an A-rank ninjutsu technique, right?" Omoi asked thoughtfully.

"Yes, it is," Samui answered, still thinking about what she just saw.

"I doubt he knows that many high level techniques," Karui said, shaking her head.

"You did not do any recon, did you?" Samui asked in exasperation. "He is not well liked by some people in this village, but I would say that he is not actually hated by that many people. As such, I was able to get some people to speak of him. I heard rumors that he knew the Shadow Clone Jutsu and the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu. If he knows the Shadow Clone Explosion, then the Shadow Clone Jutsu is certainly a technique that he can use. As a jinchuriki, he should be able to use its larger scale version as well. That means that he has at least two A-rank jutsu and one B-rank jutsu at his disposal. Furthermore, he has enough experience with Shunshin and forming clones to do both without you even being aware that he did the latter. Also, those wrist bands he is wearing are not a trivial matter. The seals on them are for Summoning: Lightning Flash Blade Creation, a B-rank jutsu. Even if it looks like he is unarmed, you should assume that he has at least a hundred shuriken and kunai sealed in each wrist band."

"You recognized the seals from here?" Omoi asked in surprise.

"Yes, but I've seen them up close before. Atsui tried to learn the jutsu last month but gave up when he decided that it was too difficult," Samui answered.

She let her teammates process everything that they had just seen and heard for a moment before speaking again.

"Come on. It wouldn't be cool if we were late," Samui said as she leapt from the balcony to the ground.

"Right," Omoi and Karui said as they jumped down after her. So far, it seemed that their leader was impressed with Naruto.

* * *

Upon entering the classroom after turning in his application to Kakashi, Naruto felt overwhelmed. The sheer number of shinobi was definitely impressive.

A grin soon made its way to his face as he realized that things would certainly get interesting soon.

The trio walked a little ways away from the door before Naruto spun and hit his palm against Sasuke's shoulder, sending him into the wall. He proceeded to jump back.

Before Sakura or Sasuke could ask Naruto what he was doing, they saw Ino Yamanaka fly through the air with a confused look on her face. It appeared as though she had leapt to jump on Sasuke's back, though she clearly did not expect Naruto to push Sasuke out of the way.

Though it was brief, Sasuke and Sakura both shot Naruto a look of gratitude as Ino fell down on the floor, unable to catch herself between seeing Naruto push Sasuke out of the way and her reaching the ground.

"Damn it, Naruto! Why did you do that?" Ino demanded furiously as she stood up, her cheeks red with embarrassment.

Naruto looked sheepishly at her. "Sorry, it was a reflex."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed a little at that. He could tell Naruto was being completely honest, which meant that his reflexes were incredibly sharp. Being able to sense Ino's approach without looking back, pushing him out of the way, and jumping out of the way in a matter of seconds… even Sasuke had to admit that it was impressive.

"You're troublesome as always," Shikamaru Nara said as he walked up to them alongside Choji Akimichi, who was eating a bag of chips as always.

"And you're lazy as always," Naruto said with a light smile. "I figured your lazy ass would be sleeping or watching the clouds. What brings you here?"

"Troublesome women," Shikamaru muttered under his breath.

"Ino and his mom," Choji clarified, getting a glare from Ino at that, who still looked furious and embarrassed by what Naruto did earlier.

"I guess everyone made it," a rather loud voice said.

Naruto's attention turned to an approaching Kiba Inuzuka, who was grinning. His teammates, Shino Aburame and Hinata Hyuga were close behind.

"Wow, they let you in?" Naruto asked with a grin. "I guess anyone can get in here."

Kiba grinned back at Naruto. "I was thinking the same thing when I saw you here."

"Don't make me kick your ass," Naruto said as he jabbed his chest with his thumb. "I'm a thousand times more awesome than I used to be."

"A thousand times zero is still zero," Ino scoffed.

"Hmm? Did you say something?" Naruto asked, making her jaw drop. "And that's how to deal with troublesome women, Shikamaru."

Naturally, Ino and Sakura both started to yell at Naruto at that point, though he was saved from having to listen to it by an outsider.

"Maybe you guys should keep it down," a white haired Leaf genin with glasses and a set of purple clothes on said as he approached them. "I suppose you are the nine rookies that the village has been talking about. I guess I can't blame rookies for being ignorant of the situation."

Naruto frowned as he looked at the genin. He knew that all of his comrades were looking at him too.

"This isn't a picnic. The Chunin Exams are a dangerous event, and you're not helping matters by talking loudly amongst yourselves. Many of the other contestants are tense enough as it is," he said with a sigh. "Since you guys are new, maybe I can help you out a bit. My name's Kabuto Yakushi, and I guess you could call me a veteran at this."

"You've taken the Chunin Exams before?" Choji asked.

Kabuto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "This is my seventh attempt."

"Wow, they must be tough," Sakura said, seeing that Kiba was about to insult him. "I bet you've learned plenty of things in your time in the exams."

"Indeed, I have," Kabuto said as he removed a deck of cards from his hip pouch. "I've obtained a great deal of information through the Chunin Exams. To better keep the information sorted, I've imprinted them on these… my ninja info cards. They appear blank at a first glance, but my chakra reveals the information hidden on them."

"What kind of information do you have on them?" Sakura asked.

"Oh, I have plenty," Kabuto replied. "For instance, did you know that there are twenty-four teams from the Hidden Leaf, ten teams from the Hidden Sand, nine teams from the Hidden Rain, five teams from the Hidden Grass, four teams from the Hidden Waterfall, one team from the Hidden Cloud, and one team from the Hidden Sound here? I have information on all one hundred fifty-nine contestants, though my information on the Hidden Sound ninja isn't very good. Their village is new and small, after all."

"And if we wanted information on a specific ninja, could we get it from you?" Sasuke asked.

Kabuto grinned at that. "If you have a name, I'll look the person up. It's easier if you have the name, at least."

"What do you have on Gaara of the Sand and Rock Lee of the Hidden Leaf?" Sasuke immediately asked, making Naruto wonder when Sasuke had met Gaara.

"Eh, I'll bite. Can you tell me about Samui of the Hidden Cloud," Naruto asked. She had struck him as the strongest one of the Cloud ninja that he had met earlier.

"And I'd like to know what it says about Naruto," Shikamaru said, looking at the blond.

Naruto frowned for a moment, but then he shrugged. He would get to see how accurate the information was at the very least.

"That won't be a problem," Kabuto said as he channeled chakra into four of the cards and the information showed up on them. "First off, you have Rock Lee. He graduated a year before you guys. He's done twenty D-rank missions and eleven C-rank missions. His sensei is Might Guy, and his teammates are Tenten and Neji Hyuga. His taijutsu skills have increased dramatically over the past year, but his other skills are virtually non-existent. Like you guys, this is his first attempt at the Chunin Exams."

As everyone processed that information, Kabuto readied the next card.

"Because Gaara is a foreign ninja, my information on him isn't great, but I do have some interesting information on him. To begin with, he has completed eight C-rank missions and one B-rank mission. What's truly impressive, however, is that he has returned from all of his missions unharmed. His sensei is Baki, and his teammates are Kankuro and Temari. Wow, this is interesting. Apparently, he and his teammates are the children of the Fourth Kazekage. This is also his first time taking the Chunin Exams," Kabuto explained.

That had the attention of all nine rookies. It was unheard of for a genin to go on a B-rank mission and come out unharmed.

"Next, we have Samui of the Hidden Cloud Village. Like Gaara, my information isn't that great on her, but I do have more on her than him. She graduated two years ago at the age of eleven and trained under an accomplished jonin named Yugito Nii for a year. Then, she was transferred to a team that is taught by the Fourth Raikage's brother, Killer B, but is led on missions by a few different jonin, including the Third Raikage's student, Darui. She has completed fifty D-rank missions and twenty-five C-rank missions. Her teammates are Omoi and Karui. My information says that she's a well-rounded kunoichi that is quite skilled in lightning ninjutsu and kenjutsu. It appears that she has never taken part in any form of Chunin Exams before," Kabuto explained.

Everyone seemed to take that information very seriously. Naruto actually looked at Samui after Kabuto said that, and she seemed to be looking at him. Strangely enough, she smiled.

"Before I go on, I have to ask if you mind me reading it aloud," Kabuto said as he looked at Naruto.

"Go ahead," Naruto said with a shrug.

"Very well then. Naruto Uzumaki graduated four months ago with the position of dead-last. His team has done ten D-rank missions and one C-rank mission so far, but he has done ninety D-rank missions by himself over the last two months," Kabuto said, pausing for a moment and looking at Naruto in surprise. All of Naruto's old classmates were looking at him in shock at hearing that he had done so many D-rank missions.

"I've only done sixty-three more D-rank missions than you have," he said with a chuckle.

"Just keep reading," Naruto said, rolling his eyes.

"His sensei is Kakashi Hatake and his teammates are Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno. Two months ago, their team gained some notoriety in the Land of Waves with the defeat of Zabuza Momochi. In particular, Naruto Uzumaki is viewed as a hero in that nation and had a bridge named after him," Kabuto said, ignoring Kiba's dismissive snort. He apparently did not think the information was accurate. "I don't have much on his abilities at the moment, unfortunately. All I have is that he has several times more chakra than a jonin and became a genin by learning the Shadow Clone Jutsu and its A-class Kinjutsu variant, the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu."

_That's pretty accurate._ Naruto was unsure of how Kabuto had obtained that information. He found it strange that someone he never met before knew how he became a genin. _At least he doesn't know about my abilities._

"Your cards don't sound very reliable," Kiba scoffed, clearly disbelieving what he said about Naruto's chakra levels. Shikamaru, Shino, and Sasuke, however, seemed to take it seriously.

Naruto was interrupted from his ponderings on how the older genin knew so much about him when Kabuto turned to the crowd of genin and the team of Sound ninja began to attack him.

* * *

Author's Note: Things are definitely picking up with Naruto, and people are finally starting to realize that he has changed quite a bit.

Speaking of changing, I'm listing the stats for Team 7 below this. They are the only team with non-canon stats, so just consult Narutopedia for the stats from the First Databook if you want to see what the stats are for Team 8, Team 10, or Team Guy.

Naruto Uzumaki

Ninjutsu- 3  
Taijutsu- 3  
Genjutsu- 2  
Intelligence- 2.5  
Strength- 3  
Speed- 3  
Stamina- 4  
Hand Signs- 2.5

Total- 23

Sasuke Uchiha

Ninjutsu- 2.5  
Taijutsu- 2.5  
Genjutsu- 2  
Intelligence- 3  
Strength- 2.5  
Speed- 2.5  
Stamina- 2  
Hand Signs- 3

Total- 20

Sakura Haruno

Ninjutsu- 2  
Taijutsu- 1.5  
Genjutsu- 3  
Intelligence- 3.5  
Strength- 1  
Speed- 1.5  
Stamina- 1  
Hand Signs- 4

Total- 18

Team Samui's stats will be revealed next chapter.

Anyways, thanks for reading and reviewing.


	5. The First Test

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does.

* * *

**5. The First Test**

Naruto looked around as he sat in the chair that he had been assigned. After the Sound genin attacked Kabuto, their proctor had shown up and reprimanded them for fighting before the exams. He had also told them to come to the front and turn in their applications so that they could be assigned a seat number for the written part of the Chunin Exams.

Already, Naruto was sweating. While even he knew that he was a little smarter than he used to be thanks to his training with Genma and Raido, he was still not suited for written tests.

In fact, it was not as though Naruto really gained much knowledge at all recently. He did learn about things that he had no knowledge of beforehand, but the main focus of his training was focused on combat. He knew what to do if he was surrounded by a dozen shinobi or if a hundred kunai were flying towards him, but he doubted those were the kinds of things that would come up in a written test.

"I am Ibiki Morino, the proctor of the first test. To make things clear, I'm going to go over the rules once. I will not repeat them," the scarred man at the front of the class said as he looked at the genin in attendance. "This is a written test, and I will tolerate no questions from you. The tests that are in front of you, face down, have the first nine questions on them. The final question will come directly from me. You will have forty-five minutes to complete the first nine questions, and then we will move on to the final question. In addition to that, the test will work on a subtraction set-up. You start out with a hundred points, and you lose ten points every time you get a question wrong. Sounds simple, right? Well, there's more. Each team will be taking the test together. If one fails, the other two fail."

Naruto's eyes widened at that. He was getting pretty worried at that point.

"Oh, and the chunin that are seated around the room will be watching you to make sure you don't cheat. If they catch you, they'll deduct twenty points from your score. If they catch you five times, then you and your team are eliminated from the Chunin Exams. So be good shinobi, and don't get caught cheating."

Naruto frowned at that. He was sure that there was a trick to the test, but he had no idea what it could be.

"You may turn your tests over and begin," he said as he turned on the timer that was on his desk.

Naruto immediately turned his test over and began to read through the questions. He quickly found that they were questions that were beyond him.

Sighing, he just set his head on his desk. He needed to come up with a plan.

* * *

Naruto was not sure how long it took, but he decided to enact his plan as soon as the person next to him finished filling out his test.

Under the desk, he formed hand signs and inhaled with his eyes looking to the front-right corner of the room. He then slowly turned his head, exhaling as his eyes came to the windows on the left side of his room, releasing his Wind Style: Drilling Air Bullet.

The sound of glass shattering had everyone's attention as they turned to look at the broken window that came as a result of Naruto's jutsu.

The instant that everyone's eyes turned, he swapped his test with his neighbor's, erased the name at the top of it, and wrote his name in its place. He then set his head down with his arms over his test, pretending to go to sleep.

When his neighbor looked back at his test, he began panic. Within moments, he was disqualified.

Now, all Naruto needed to do was wait. Fortunately, he did not have to wait long.

* * *

Samui rubbed her right shoulder with her left hand as she waited for time to be called. If there was one thing she hated about having such a mature figure, it was the shoulder pains. They were not enough to be debilitating or anything, but they were definitely enough to be an annoyance.

Glancing around, she wondered when time would be called. She had quickly discovered the purpose of the test, though she had filled out the test without cheating. It was simple enough for her to answer without outside help.

She had to admit that some people had unique ways to complete the test. She had seen Hyuga with their Byakugan active, the Last Uchiha with his Sharingan active, an Inuzuka with his dog giving him the answers, and even an Aburame using his insects to get the answers.

Of all the ones she saw, she had been most impressed with Naruto's solution. It was simple and bold… kind of like the Raikage. While subtlety would have been nice as well, it made her job easier for him to be so simple.

Her mission was to determine if he was a threat or not, after all, so it was much easier to tell if she needed to kill him if he lacked the subtlety required to deceive someone.

In all honesty, Samui hoped that Naruto did not turn out to be a threat to her village. There was something about the guy that she liked. Sure, he was a lot like Karui in many ways, but there was also a hidden element to him. He seemed to draw people in to him.

That was not to say that she had a crush on him or anything of that nature, despite what Omoi liked to suggest. She could not even form an opinion on the boy yet at that point. After all, she did not really know anything about him other than his horrid fashion sense, his obsession for ramen, and some of his abilities.

She was broken from her thoughts as the proctor began to speak.

"Okay, we will start the tenth question now," Ibiki said. "Before we get to it… I'd like to go over some added rules for this question."

_New rules? That bit of information surprised her, which was something that did not happen too often._

"For this question, you must decide whether or not you will even take it."

_There's a catch, of course._

"What happens if we choose not to take it?" Naruto's pink haired teammate… Sakura, she believed her name was… asked immediately.

"If you choose not to take it, then your points will be reduced to zero. That will cause you, along with your teammates, to fail," Ibiki said.

"Why wouldn't we take it then?" the Inuzuka that she had observed earlier asked.

"That brings me to the second rule," Ibiki said. "If you choose to take it and you answer incorrectly, then you will fail and lose the right to ever take the Chunin Exams again."

That single rule filled the room with shock and outrage, though Samui resisted the urge to roll her eyes. It was clearly a hollow threat. Even if it was not, it was possible to get a field promotion, or even to get promoted straight from genin to jonin. Both options actually happened often enough to be considered possibilities.

"What kind of stupid rule is that?" the Inuzuka asked. "There are guys here that have taken the exams before."

"You guys are simply unlucky. This year, I make the rules," Ibiki said. "I am giving you a way out though. Those that aren't confident enough can choose not to take it… and try again in six months."

"Those that do not wish to take it, raise your right hand. Once your number is confirmed, leave," Ibiki said. He watched for the next several minutes as examinees quit, one after another.

_For such a simple ploy, it is working wonders. Ibiki Morino of the Hidden Leaf Village is worthy of his reputation, it seems._

"You're going to have to try a hell of a lot harder to make me give up," Naruto said as he slapped the top of his desk with his right hand. "I never give up. That's my nindo, my ninja way."

Samui looked at him curiously at that. It was ludicrous for him to call that his ninja way, at least in her opinion. She had never heard of someone creating their personal ninja way before, so it sounded even more ridiculous than it normally would have.

Ibiki frowned as he saw everyone determination fill a large number of the candidates. "I hear you want to be Hokage. How are you going to achieve that if you can never become a chunin?"

"If I fail, and that's a big if, then I'll just go straight to Hokage from genin," Naruto said with fire in his eyes.

_So, he wants to be Hokage? That's a lofty goal, and he'd definitely have opposition since he's a jinchuriki. It wouldn't be unheard of for him to pull it off though. The Fourth Mizukage is a jinchuriki, unless I'm mistaken. Still… this is an important piece of information. Assuming that he is indeed capable of becoming Hokage one day, him being on good terms with our village would be beneficial to us._

"Good decisions… now to those of you still remaining, I congratulate you on passing the first test." Ibiki said.

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked. "What about the tenth question?"

Ibiki did something far more terrifying to the genin than any torture could have been. He smiled. "There never was such a thing… or you could say that those two choices were the tenth question," Ibiki said.

"What were the first nine questions for then?" a blonde Sand kunoichi asked. "Were they pointless?" She did not like the prospect of pointlessly taking an exam.

"No, they were not pointless. They served their intended purpose," Ibiki said. "The questions were not the type of questions that a mere genin could answer. Because of that, I'm sure that you all came to the conclusion that you had to cheat. Basically, the premise of this test is to cheat. As cheating targets, we had several chunin sit in with you that knew all of the answers so that you guys would have someone to cheat off of."

"Those that cheated poorly, failed of course," Ibiki said as he removed his bandana. "Because in times, information is more important than life… and on missions and the battlefield, people risk their lives to get their hands on it."

His head were covered in burns, screw holes, and scars.

_It would appear that the head of the Hidden Leaf's Torture and Interrogation Force has been on the other side of his job before._

"If the enemy or a third party notices you, then there is no guarantee that the information will be accurate. I want you to remember this. Information in your hands can be a powerful weapon for your comrades and for the village," Ibiki said. "So we had you gather information through cheating. This clearly separated those that did not have the right abilities from those that did."

"But I still don't understand the final question," Sakura said.

"But the tenth question is the true purpose of the test," Ibiki said with a knowing smile.

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked in confusion.

"Let me explain the tenth question, which was a take it or don't take it decision," Ibiki said. "Obviously, these are painful choices. Those who choose the latter fail along their teammates. Those who choose to take it could lose their chance to ever take the test again. It is a true leap of faith."

"Let me provide you with a scenario. As chunin, you are given a mission to steal a secret document. The amount of ninja, their abilities, and a large number of other things are all unknown to you. Of course, there could be traps set around you. Do you accept or reject the mission? Can you avoid the dangerous mission just because you don't want to die or let your comrades get hurt?" Ibiki asked. "The answer is no. No matter what the danger, there are missions that you can't avoid. The ability to be courageous and survive any hardship… this is the ability needed to become a chunin. Those who can't put their destinies on the line… who cling to the uncertain future of 'there's always next year'… and then walk away from their chance… those pieces of trash who can only make such cowardly decisions… they don't deserve the right to become chunin. That's how I feel. Those who chose to take it… those who answered the tough tenth question correctly… you will be able to survive any troubles that you face in the future. You have made it through the entrance. The first test of the Chunin Exams is now finished. I wish you guys luck."

The moment that those words left Ibiki's words, a cannon ball shot through one of the windows, shattering the window. The cannon unrolled in front of Ibiki to reveal a special jonin standing in front of a banner that read: Anko Mitarashi, Proctor of the Second Test. The special jonin was wearing a tan trench coat, a tan skirt, shin guards, and a suit of ninja mesh. She had purple hair in a spiky pony tail and brown eyes that lacked pupils.

Samui blinked once upon seeing her and then began to rub the bridge of her nose. She wondered how many more hyperactive people she would meet.

"You guys, this is no time to be celebrating. I am the proctor of the second test, Anko Mitarashi. Let's go now," she said. "Follow me!"

"You have bad timing," Ibiki commented.

"Seventy-eight… Ibiki, you left twenty-six teams?" Anko said. "Your test was way too easy this time!"

"There are a lot of outstanding ones this time," Ibiki said.

"That's fine… I'll at least cut them in half by the end of the second test," Anko said. "Ah, I'm getting excited. I'll explain everything once we've changed places. Follow me."

Samui just shook her head at the sight before her. It seemed that the Hidden Leaf Village had some eccentric shinobi, even going beyond what she had first though.

* * *

Anko Mitarashi led the remaining candidates to a fenced in forest with signs that warned them of danger plastered on the chain linked fence. There was a booth right behind her when she stopped to face the examinees.

"Welcome to the stage for the second test, Training Ground Number Forty-Four… also known as the Forest of Death," Anko said. "You'll soon find out why it's called the Forest of Death."

Samui knew about the Forest of Death. Yugito had taken her to Turtle Island six months after she graduated, and it had been described as the Hidden Cloud's version of the Forest of Death, except the animals on Turtle Island were actually tamed.

She shook her head as she watched Naruto get his cheek sliced by a kunai that was thrown by the proctor for boasting. It seemed that he was a little reckless, though that did not surprise her.

"Now, before we start the second test, there's something I have to pass out. You must sign these waivers," Anko said as she held up a stack of papers and walked to the front of the crowd. "There will be deaths in this one, and if you don't sign these, then it will be all my responsibility."

_She's pretty nonchalant about genin dying in her test._

"I'm going to explain the second test now. You can sign the waivers when I am done explaining it. Once you sign the waivers, each team will check in at the booth behind me.

"Simply put, you will attempt the ultimate survival test. First, I'll explain the area in which it will take place. There are forty-four locked gates around the area. Almost all of the area is composed of forest with a tower in the center and a river that divides the forest in two, running underneath the tower. From any of the gates to the tower is a distance of approximately six miles.

"During the survival test, you will be asked to complete a certain task using your weapons, tools, and jutsu. You will compete in a no rules scroll battle.

"You will fight over these two scrolls: the Scroll of Heaven and the Scroll of Earth. Thirteen of the teams will start out with the Scroll of Heaven. Thirteen of the teams will start out with the Scroll of Earth. Your team must make it to the tower with both scrolls.

"There's a time limit too. The test will last exactly five days long. All of your survival needs are things that you will have to worry about. I'd recommend that you watch out for man-eating beasts, poisonous insects, and poisonous plants.

"The possibility of thirteen teams passing is very unlikely by the way. As the days go on, the distance to the goal will become farther and the time to rest will become shorter. The area is crawling with enemies too, so you won't get much sleep. So not only will some fail by losing the scroll, but some will die from the harshness of the course.

"Now I'll talk about what will disqualify you. First, those that don't make it to the tower with both scrolls within the time limit will be disqualified. Second, those who lose a teammate will be disqualified. As a rule, you will be in the forest for five days, so quitting in the middle is impossible. The final rule is that you must not look inside either scroll until you make it to the tower. A chunin will be asked to handle classified information. This is to test your worthiness. That is it for the explanations.

"Exchange the three forms for your scroll. Then, choose a gate to get ready for the start.

"My parting advice to you is to try not to die," Anko said.

With that, everyone began to sign their waivers and turn them in. The waivers were turned in behind a closed booth so that the other examinees could not see which teams got what scrolls and who actually carried the scroll.

Once everyone had their scrolls, Anko said, "Follow a chunin and go to your gates. We will start in thirty minutes."

As they made their way to a gate, Omoi asked, "What's the plan?"

"Can I trust you two to survive here?" Samui asked as she looked around, making sure no one was too close to them.

"Of course," Karui said.

"Here's what we're going to do then," Samui said before she began to explain.

Thirty minutes later, every team that was participating entered the Forest of Death. No one could have known how the next five days would change everything.

* * *

Author's Note: I did the least amount of work to this than any other previous chapter that I've rewritten/revised of Legacy.

Oh, and here are the stats for Team Samui. Keep in mind that stats don't equal victory.

Samui

Ninjutsu- 3  
Taijutsu- 3  
Genjutsu- 3  
Intelligence- 4  
Strength- 2.5  
Speed- 4  
Stamina- 3  
Hand Signs- 3.5

Total- 26

Omoi

Ninjutsu- 3.5  
Taijutsu- 3  
Genjutsu- 2  
Intelligence- 3.5  
Strength- 4  
Speed- 3  
Stamina- 3  
Hand Signs- 2.5

Total- 24.5

Karui

Ninjutsu- 3  
Taijutsu- 3.5  
Genjutsu- 2  
Intelligence- 3  
Strength- 3  
Speed- 4  
Stamina- 3  
Hand Signs- 2.5

Total- 24

Anyways, thanks for reading and reviewing.


	6. The Forest of Death

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does.

* * *

**6. The Forest of Death**

About thirty minutes into their journey through the Forest of Death, Naruto said, "Let's stop for a minute. I have to go."

Sakura looked at him in confusion.

Stopping in his position, Sasuke said, "Don't go too far. It would be a shame if you were attacked while you were… relieving… yourself and had no one to come to your rescue."

Sakura faintly blushed at the realization of what Naruto had meant.

Naruto rolled his eyes at Sasuke's statement and began to walk through the forest a little ways away from them. Once he was a few hundred yards from his teammates, he watered a tree. Once he was done, he began to walk back towards Sasuke and Sakura, but he stopped after a few steps.

Standing in front of him was Sasuke.

"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with Sakura?" Naruto asked in confusion.

"Right… I'll see you when you're done, Naruto," Sasuke said as he turned around.

As soon as Sasuke turned around, Naruto channeled chakra to his feet and dashed towards him. He planted his fist firmly in the back of Sasuke's head, causing him to be engulfed in a cloud of smoke. In Sasuke's place was a Rain ninja.

"How did you know that I wasn't Sasuke?" the ninja asked as he rose to his feet and looked at Naruto.

"Sasuke doesn't say my name like you do. He pronounces it different. I don't suppose you thought to watch us for a while beforehand though," Naruto said as he drew a kunai and jumped on top of the ninja. He slammed the kunai down on him, but he soon found himself on top of a log. Looking around intently, he saw that the Rain ninja was nowhere around.

Forming the ram hand sign, Naruto used Shunshin twice in rapid succession, appearing in front of Sakura, surprising her and Sasuke.

"What's my name?" Naruto asked when he appeared.

"Naruto, what's going on?" Sakura asked in confusion.

"Your name is Naruto," Sasuke answered, seeing that Naruto would explain everything in due time.

"On my way back, I was attacked by a Rain ninja that transformed into Sasuke. He didn't say my name like Sasuke does though," Naruto quickly explained. "Also, his shuriken holster was on his left leg instead of his right leg."

"It seems that we will need to come up with a password in case we get separated. They might study us beforehand the next time they try something like this," Sasuke said.

"I agree," Naruto said as he took a deep breath. He could see the use in having such a password. After all, it was quite likely that Team Seven would get separated again. It would have been bad if the Rain ninja had actually been competent. Without a password, he could have taken Naruto's place with the team and attacked them when they were not expecting it.

"What should the password be?" Sakura asked.

"This will be the password: When does a ninja strike? A ninja waits until the time is right… when the enemy sleeps and drops his guard… when his weapons lay forgotten in the stillness of the night… that is the time when a ninja strikes," Sasuke said.

Sakura mouthed the password three times and then said, "Okay, I got it."

"Can't it be something shorter? I'll never remember that. It's too long," Naruto said.

"No, it is the password. If you can't remember it, then don't get separated from us," Sasuke said.

"I can't remember that," Naruto muttered under his breath. It looked like he would have to do his best to just not get separated from them.

"Now, let's go. We should pick up the pace," Sasuke said as he began to run through the forest with his teammates behind him.

The entire time, they remained unaware that they were being watched and followed by someone.

* * *

About fifteen minutes later, Naruto was flung through the forest as a sudden gust of wind hit him and his teammates. He was at the very center of the blast of wind though, so Sakura and Sasuke were just thrown to the side while Naruto was actually sent flying through the forest. Though he could not tell how far it sent him flying, he knew that he could not see his teammates any more.

He was only stopped when he hit a tree, sending sharp pains through his back. If it was not for the fact that he was so durable, such a thing would have likely knocked him unconscious.

Rising to his feet, Naruto prepared to run back to his team, but something stood in his way. A giant snake stood before him, its eyes focused on him as though it was going to eat him.

Naruto's hands quickly flipped between the dragon, tiger, and rabbit hand signs before he leapt into the air with a chakra enhanced jump. Placing both hands in front of his mouth, as though he was going to play an invisible instrument, he used one of his strongest jutsu.

_Water Style: Water Trumpet._

A large jet of water shot out of his mouth towards the snake. The speed that the water was shooting out resulted in it having enough power to cut through flesh when used at full power, especially when it was overloaded like Naruto had a tendency to do.

The snake quickly tried to dodge the attack, resulting in it only being grazed. Still, he managed to tear open a wound in the snake's side.

Quickly touching the seal on his left wrist band, Naruto summoned a kunai that had ninja wire attacked to it. He threw the kunai at a nearby tree and used the ninja wire to pull himself towards the tree, allowing him to move out of the way as the snake tried to devour him.

He did a flip mid-air and stuck to the tree with chakra.

Without taking a moment of rest, Naruto released his hold on the ninja wire, inhaled a deep breath, and began to flip through another set of hand signs. _Wind Style: Great Breakthrough._

He exhaled a large blast of wind similar to the one that got him into this situation in the first place.

Whereas his Water Trumpet was smaller and easier to dodge, his Great Breakthrough was much larger and difficult to dodge.

It struck the snake and sent it rolling through the forest, knocking down at least two dozen trees in the process. It was still very much alive, unfortunately.

"I guess if you want it done right, you have to use an A-rank jutsu," Naruto grumbled as he unsealed a shuriken from his wrist band. He threw it and flipped through the hand signs of ram, rat, bird, boar, and tiger before speaking its name. "Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu."

In a single instant, that one shuriken became five hundred. That was actually only half as many as the Third Hokage could make when he used the jutsu, but he did create it. Plus, Genma had always told him never to push the number up when training. It was easier to make sure all five hundred only hit his target than it was with a thousand. A single shuriken could kill a bystander, after all.

"Wind Style: Gale Palm," he quickly said, slamming his hands together, propelling the five hundred shuriken towards the snake with extreme speed.

As expected, the snake was unable to dodge the mass of shuriken. Upon contact, it shredded a good portion of the snake. If it could survive that, Naruto would eat his shoes.

Looking around, Naruto saw a relatively big problem.

His jutsu had caused too much damage to the area that he could not tell where he had come from to arrive there. The landmarks that he had noted before he fought the snake was gone thanks to all his attacks, along with the damage that the snake had done when it lunged at him earlier and missed.

Jumping down, Naruto decided to try to simply find a way back to his teammates. He had to have faith that Sasuke and Sakura could handle whatever situation they were in. Sasuke had the Sharingan and strong fire jutsu. Plus, Sasuke and Sakura had both trained privately with Kakashi, so they should not have needed his help with whoever attacked him. As a result, he did not try too hard to find them quickly.

He had no idea that they were currently facing down Orochimaru of the Sannin. Of course, no genin would ever guess that such an unlikely situation would occur in the first place.

* * *

"Do you have an issue with me?" Samui asked with narrowed eyes. Though she was actually somewhat tired, her breath remained at a normal pace.

Across from her was Neji Hyuga, who was still in his Gentle Fist stance. A ways behind him was Tenten, his kunoichi teammate.

Samui inwardly cursed her decision to split from her team so that she could find Naruto and get him separated from his team. She believed that she could only understand him well if she was able to speak with him without anyone else around.

Still, she had not expected a Hyuga to hunt her down.

"Of course I do," Neji said coldly. "Your treacherous village is responsible for my father's death."

"You must be the son of Hizashi Hyuga then," Samui said with a sigh. She had not expected such an event to occur. She had been briefed in-depth about the Hyuga Affair before she went to take the Chunin Exams so that she would not be surprised when the Hyuga avoided her, but that was what she had expected: to be avoided. She had not expected to be hunted.

"Once you split from your team, we followed after you. Once I'm done with you, I'll kill your teammates. I'll make you and your village pay," Neji vowed with anger in his eyes.

She was broken from her thoughts as Neji moved in for the kill, going for a palm strike to the chest. She was ready to draw her tanto and cut his fingers off when she felt a familiar sensation that actually made her smile.

Naruto was standing between Neji and Samui with his hand firmly gripping Neji's wrist.

"What in the hell do you think you're doing?" Naruto asked flatly. His words were colder than anyone in the village had ever heard Naruto speak.

"Mind your own business," Neji said angrily as he jerked his hand out of Naruto's grip.

"If you really wanted to fight someone one on one, you should have at least looked for another guy. You weren't coming here to fight her though. You came here to kill her. Girls are just as capable as guys, of course, but only a coward would search out a girl on her own with the intention of killing her. Also, what honor is there in bringing a teammate along with you to kill someone who is alone in this forest, especially when you are out for revenge?" Naruto asked, glancing back at Samui for a moment. "You left Lee behind so he wouldn't try to stop you. That's the only thing that would make sense. He would find your actions as cowardly as I do, though he'd probably call it _unyouthful_ instead."

"I do not care for your opinions, you insolent piece of trash," Neji said with a furious look in his eyes. "I have no reason to listen to the words of scum like you who would help a foreign shinobi and stand in the way of a fellow Leaf shinobi. As if it's not bad enough that you're a dead-last."

"I have honor, unlike you. You aren't the only one from a famous clan, you know. My clan would probably be even more prestigious than yours if our village had not been destroyed a few decades ago. So if the Hyuga clan is not going to show honor, then the Uzumaki clan will have to," Naruto said with a determined look in his eyes. "It's good to see you again, Samui. I got a little lost and ended up here somehow. What would you say to teaming up for a little bit? A two-on-two fight might actually be fun."

"That's cool with me," Samui said as she jumped back. "If they have their scroll on them, you can have it."

"Thanks," Naruto said as he jumped back as well.

"This isn't about revenge," Tenten said as she began to walk forward. "You said that it was about justice, Neji. Maybe if you explain, he won't help her."

"Did you know that my mother was kidnapped by the Hidden Cloud Village when she was around my age?" Naruto asked suddenly, making Samui look at him nervously. "I don't actually know her name. Genma-sensei wanted to motivate me to get stronger by telling me that he'd tell me who my parents were as soon as I became a Chunin. He also said that he had plenty of stories to tell me about them. Anyways, he told me that they wanted her because she had special chakra that could have helped them a great deal. She was saved me one of her comrades, apparently, but they are still the same village that would have used her for her own means. And yet, I'm still willing to fight alongside a Cloud shinobi. Do you know why?"

Neji's eyes narrowed at that while Tenten seemed to be moving into a combat stance.

"It's because Samui did not try to kidnap my mother. She did not try to kidnap Hinata or kill your father. You cannot blame every injustice that they've been behind on anyone wearing a Cloud forehead protector. The Raikage that ordered my mother's kidnapping is currently dead, and there's no proof that the Fourth Raikage was behind the kidnapping of Hinata Hyuga. It's possible that he knew nothing about the intent to kidnap and simply defended his subordinate when he heard that he was killed and accused of a crime on a diplomatic mission. Any good Kage should do that, don't you agree?"

The determination in Neji's eyes did not waver. He instead moved forward.

"Bring on the lightning," Naruto muttered under his breath as he quickly flipped through a series of hand signs. _Water Style: Raging Waves_.

Naruto spewed a current of water from his mouth that was similar in power to a river.

Neji would have landed a hit on him normally, but the jutsu hit him in the face, knocking him down and making it hard to see due to all the water that hit him in the eyes.

Naruto did a backflip at that point and saw Samui finishing a set of hand signs.

Samui jumped into the air as well and said, "Lightning Style: Thunder Bullets." Her hand lit up with lightning for a moment and released six small spheres of lightning before it faded. The spheres of lightning shot to the ground, hitting the water and electrifying Neji to the point of unconsciousness.

She looked up immediately afterwards and saw a barrage of kunai and shuriken flying at her from Tenten's direction.

"Wind Style: Gale Palm," Naruto said as he slammed his hands together, sending a blast of wind from his position towards his temporary teammate that knocked her out of the way.

Thankful for the help, Samui did a flip mid-air and landed on her feet. She was already flipping through a set of hand signs of her own at that moment. _Genjutsu: Double Optic Delusory._

Spotting Naruto, she gave him a signal to wait and ran towards Tenten. She broke one of the layers of the genjutsu with a fairly loud _Release_, but that was a difficult genjutsu to break quickly unless the target had been under it before.

Samui jumped into the air and delivered a resounding kick to the side of Tenten's head, sending her flying through the air. As she hit the ground, she rolled and was clearly unconscious.

"Check the Hyuga for the scroll. I'll check this girl for it," Samui called out to Naruto.

"I found it," Naruto responded a moment later.

"I suspected as much," Samui said as she walked towards him. "Guys like him are too arrogant to trust the safety of their scroll to someone else."

Naruto was reminded of how Sasuke had insisted on keeping their Scroll of Heaven on him at that moment.

"It's a Scroll of Heaven," Samui glanced at the scroll Naruto had just found. "That's what my teammates have on them."

"Same here," Naruto said as he put the spare scroll in his hip pouch. "It'll be good to have a spare anyways."

"True," Samui said with a nod. "So do you need help finding your team?"

"Probably, but I don't want to go back to them right now," Naruto said with a sigh. "They underestimate me too much. I figure if I could get a complete set of scrolls before I go back, maybe they'll stop."

"How about this," Samui said thoughtfully. "Let's work together for the rest of the day. Today, we can both get complete sets of scrolls, and possibly get some more spares, Tommorrow, I'll help you find your teammates. My first sensei taught me how to track, and I think I can help you find them."

"That sounds like a good idea to me," Naruto said with a smile.

* * *

Half an hour later, Naruto and Samui were walking through the forest together. That had spoken off and on since leaving the unconscious Neji and Tenten.

Most of their communication so far had been in the form questions and answers. Naruto would ask questions about her life or her career as a shinobi, and she would do the same. Naturally, he grew tense anytime she asked about his childhood.

She was careful not to bring up that he was a jinchuriki or that she knew he was one in their conversations though. It would have simplified things, but she did not believe that he was ready to talk about it. She would tell him as much if he found out that she knew in the future.

She suddenly placed a hand on his shoulder and pushed her chakra into him, surprising him.

"We're being watched, and a genjutsu was just placed on us. It was so subtle I barely noticed it, and I use genjutsu," Samui said as she unsheathed her tanto.

Naruto quickly unsealed a kunai from his wrist band, spun around, and blocked the kunai of an all too familiar Rain shinobi.

The Rain shinobi suddenly looked down and saw the blade of Samui's tanto sticking through his abdomen.

"You left yourself open. It's not cool to do that," she said without looking at the enemy shinobi. She withdrew the tanto as he dropped his kunai. "That wasn't a lethal strike. I know how to avoid hitting anything major with an attack like that. So now, his teammates have to come out unless they want him to die and cause them to fail."

Naruto suddenly hit Samui with an open handed strike, surprising her. He hit her with enough force to send her flying away about ten yards.

Confusion was written on her face, and he thought he saw a hurt expression show briefly.

It all changed when Naruto stabbed into the spot where she had been with his kunai. She had not realized that she was under another genjutsu. Standing where she had been was a second Rain ninja with his kunai forward, making it clear that he had tried to kill her right before Naruto knocked her out of the way. When he stabbed forward with his kunai, Naruto had completely run the tip of the kunai from the left side of the Rain ninja's neck to the left side of it.

Naruto had responded with lethal force when he realized that someone was trying to attack her.

All of the sudden, he spun out of the way and caught an invisible arm. He then pulled the kunai free from the neck of the Rain ninja he killed and rammed it into the forehead of the final member of the team.

"Genjutsu of that nature doesn't work on me," Naruto said as he looked at the corpses of the two shinobi that he had just killed. "I can hear and smell better than most people, so I knew we weren't alone, but that's not how I knew where exactly they were. I spent the last six days fighting my teachers for ten hours a day. You start to pick up a sixth sense when you fight against opponents that you can't always see. You start to be able to sense killing intent and danger. I'm sorry if I scared you, but I'd rather scare you than have you die. Teammates have each other's backs."

Samui nodded as she looked away. It was a sentiment that she understood. She felt the same way when she sensed the first genjutsu that was placed on them. It also made something clear to her. Naruto was not a threat to her village, and she did not believe that he would even be one. She had worried that he would when he mentioned his mother earlier in the day, but he held no grudges to the village. He was even willing to view a shinobi of the village as a comrade, in fact.

At the same time, she felt something strange when he said that he did not want her to die. She did not understand that feeling though.

"Just another Scroll of Heaven," Naruto said with a sigh as he removed a scroll from the still living Rain shinobi that attacked first. He also had two cards in his other hand. Samui recognized them as identification cards.

She suddenly realized that he had searched for them to find out the names of the people he killed, which made her wonder if he had ever killed before.

Rising to her feet, Samui walked over to Naruto and took the scroll from him. "You got the first one, so I'll keep this one."

Naruto merely shrugged.

"Let's go," Samui said as she glanced down at the still living Rain shinobi. And then, she used her tanto to slice his throat open. She saw Naruto look at her with unreadable eyes after she did that. "It's either let him bleed to death over the course of the next day or give him a merciful death."

"Right," Naruto said. "I'm ready."

The pair left the area at that.

* * *

That night, Naruto and Samui were sitting at a camp fire with shadow clones surrounding them in the forest, watching intently for any intruders.

Two complete sets of scrolls were next to each genin. They had successfully taken out five more teams of genin together using their jutsu and trap making abilities. They did not end up killing anyone else though.

"I don't see how you can eat this stuff so often. It can't be good for you," Samui said as she ate the cup of ramen that Naruto had given to her.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "And you'd rather eat ration bars?"

"If I did, I wouldn't be eating your ramen right now," Samui said with a slight cringe. Naruto could not blame her for it either. Ration bars were one of the most horrendous tasting foods in the Elemental Nations. It was almost as if someone designed them to taste so bad.

"Well, they didn't tell us we'd be coming here," Naruto said with a grin. "I usually keep a scroll full of ramen. I also have a scroll full of bentos at home for missions. I just bought sealed them up a few days ago, but I didn't think we'd be camping out in a creepy forest like this, so I didn't bring them."

"Well, hunting would have been an option," Samui pointed out between bites.

"But ramen is the food of the gods and is easier to obtain," Naruto said as he bowed extravagantly to the cup of ramen in his hand. He then raised it to the sky. "Thank you for blessing us with the greatness that is ramen, oh Noodle Gods!"

Samui giggled at that. Once she realized what she had done, a look of horror came across her face and Naruto grinned.

"That was cute," Naruto said. His face turned red in embarrassment when he realized that he had said that aloud.

"I will have to kill you if you ever tell anyone about that," Samui said in the most threatening voice she could come up with.

Naruto just nodded sheepishly in response.

The next day, the pair would part ways and rejoin their teams before heading to the tower in the middle of the forest, but they both walked away from each other with a greater understanding of the type of person they were.

* * *

Author's Note: And this is where the rewritten/revised content ends. Only the first six chapters of Legacy were written. I actually have one more chapter of this story written though. After all, my intention was to post the first seven chapters of this story on the first day of July. So that's seven chapters on the first day of the seventh month. That's pretty cool when you think about it.

Just in case you're curious, Chapters 1-6 of Legacy total up around 21,000 words. Chapters 1-6 of this total up around 24,000 words.

Anyways, I think this came out pretty well. I know some of you may disagree with Naruto fighting against a Leaf ninja when he was fighting a foreign shinobi, Naruto not going back for his team right away, or Naruto killing without seeming to react, but I think each made sense.

Naruto stumbled upon Samui and couldn't turn away after he saw Neji go for a killing blow. He met her and instinctively liked her (as a person, not as a crush). Walking away would have been as good as cutting her throat himself in his opinion, and he was not willing to do that. He also had the reasons that he gave in the actual scene.

Also, I'll be frank. Naruto isn't as close to his team as in canon. He and Sasuke mostly ignore each other since the Land of Waves mission, and he lost his crush on Sakura. That makes him less likely to want to rush to them. They are a friend-type of a team. They are a professional-type of team. That's how it is for Naruto, at least. He'd probably travel alone through the forest if it wasn't for the fact that they have to do the mission as a team.

And finally, it's amazing how characters react to things. Shino, Hinata, and Kiba set a trap with the leeches in the Forest of Death in canon and did not do anything to save the team that they caught with the trap after the team was taken out, and they did not react unless you want to call Kiba acting like they're a superior team a reaction. As far as I'm concerned, they killed them. And what most people forget is that the team was only Rain shinobi in the anime. They were Leaf shinobi in the manga.

Naruto won't have much of an obvious reaction to his first two kills, though if you pay attention to the next few chapters, you'll notice that he keeps their identification cards and has occasional nightmares.


	7. Out of the Forest & Into the Tower

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

* * *

**7. Out of the Forest & Into the Tower**

Finding Sakura and Sasuke turned out to be fairly easy. Naruto had ended up using shadow clones to find them using the information transfer aspect of the jutsu.

He woke up several hours before Samui did, having trouble sleeping, so he sent a dozen shadow clones to look for his teammates. He was not a tracker by any means, but his clones had been able to find the gate they entered the forest through and found the path that they had taken. They had even found the spot where the wind jutsu had hit them and knocked him away the previous day.

Just as he was about to take Samui up on her offer to help him, his shadow clones dispelled, sending him the memory of where Sakura was. He was able to go straight there using the clones' memories. It was tricky, but he managed to find it.

Truthfully, he had preferred staying with Samui than with Sakura and Sasuke, but he needed to get back to his teammates.

He did find something about Samui strange though. Her parting words with him had been, "I'm glad that you're not an enemy or a threat."

He intended on asking her about it another day.

Just as he was reaching where Sakura and Sasuke were, he saw Rock Lee on his knees in front of three Sound ninja. He was holding his left ear, and Sakura was a ways behind him, looking very nervous.

_What in the hell is going on? I can sense Sasuke's chakra well enough to know that he's here, but he's not fighting. Did he get injured yesterday? Damn it, I should have tried to get back to them._

Taking a deep breath, Naruto formed the ram hand sign.

In a flicker of air, Naruto appeared next to the leader of the Sound shinobi and slammed his fist into the side of his head with all of his strength.

Sakura, Lee, and the other two Sound shinobi all gasped in shock at the sudden arrival.

"Sorry I'm late," Naruto said with a glance to Sakura. "I got lost on the road of life."

"Liar," Sakura said weakly, but she actually looked happy to see him.

"All that matters is that I'm here now," Naruto said with a look of resolve in his eyes. It unnerved the Sound shinobi. "What are your names?"

"I think their names are Zaku and Kin," Sakura answered in a slightly confused tone. "I think I heard them call the other guy Dosu."

"Stay away from him when you fight," Lee said in a pained voice. "That thing on his arm uses some kind of trick with sound."

"I've got it handled," Naruto said, unconcerned.

Just as he spoke, Dosu came charging at him from the side, but Naruto spun, slapped a hand on the mechanical device, pushed Dosu away, and formed the Seal of Confrontation with his right hand.

Before Dosu could even utilize his jutsu, Naruto activated the explosive note that he had just slapped on it.

Sakura watched in shock as Naruto destroyed the mechanical device and did serious damage to the Sound shinobi's arm.

"You'll probably lose that arm," Naruto said, though his eyes did not leave the other two Sound shinobi. "Now, I'd recommend that both of you come at me at the same time. Otherwise, you don't have a chance at beating me."

As soon as he said that, he jumped to his left and kicked Dosu in the back of his head, knocking him unconscious.

"I don't know who you think you are, but-" the one named Zaku began.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki. Pleased to meet you," Naruto said cheekily, earning a glare. He then glanced back at the older genin. "Oh, and Lee, if Neji shows up here, I might have to kick his ass… again. I don't think he'll be pleased to meet me after I beat him and stole his scroll… along with the other thing I did."

"Neji did not explain what happened," Lee said with a frown, though it was hard to tell if it was because he had not been informed of what happened or if it was because Naruto was not giving the now attacking Sound genin his full attention.

A dozen needles were flying at Naruto, courtesy of the Sound kunoichi.

"Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu," Naruto said as he summoned a shuriken from his wrist band, threw it, and weaved the hand signs.

In the face of five hundred shuriken, a dozen needles were not that effective, especially when the person that had countered was following up with a wind jutsu.

"Wind Style: Gale Palm," he said as he slapped his hands together and propelled the barrage of shuriken towards his enemies even more quickly.

Zaku suddenly jumped forward with both hands out in front of him. He had apparently realized that such a technique could not be dealt with by dodging.

"Supersonic Slicing Waves," he said, emitting a seemingly relentless wave of cutting sound waves towards them.

Naruto inhaled a deep breath, weaved a set of hand signs, and exhaled a jutsu to match it. _Wind Style: Great Breakthrough._

The two attacks collided and mostly canceled each other out. In fact, the only remnants of either jutsu came in the form of a gust of wind hitting the Sound ninja.

"Incredible," Sakura whispered.

Lee watched in surprise as well. The person fighting before him did not look like a dead-last in the slightest.

Naruto, unaware of what was going on behind him, was already preparing his strongest elemental jutsu.

_Water Style: Water Trumpet_.

He shot the powerful jet of water at the ground between them. The reason only became clear when the Sound shinobi did not try to move away.

Within seconds, the entire patch of ground where the Sound shinobi were became little more than mud with grass on top of it. Their feet became stuck and they were having a hard time moving.

Naruto grabbed Dosu, threw him towards the sound shinobi, weaved the hand signs for a final attack, and launched yet another Wind Style: Great Breakthrough at them.

It slammed into all three Sound ninja and sent them flying, much like the one that hit him the previous day did.

He then turned around and looked at Lee and Sakura curiously. They looked shocked.

He had no idea that they were both comparing themselves to him. Sakura was thinking about how she would have been useless against them while Naruto defeated all three of them, and Lee was thinking about how easily Naruto dealt with Dosu before some rather impressive jutsu to take down the others.

"Lee, I appreciate what you did for Sakura, but I'm going to need to get out of here before your team gets here, so I don't have time to properly thank you. Neji and I fought yesterday, and I suspect that he'll try to kill me if he sees me again anytime soon," Naruto said as he created two shadow clones. He then looked at Sakura. "You look dead to the world. I'm guessing you've spent quite a while dealing with Sasuke. I'm going to guess something happened to him, but you can explain later. For now, my shadow clones are going to carry you and Sasuke. Go to sleep if you want, but don't hit the clone unless you want to fall. This is not me trying to make a move on your or some stupid thing like that. But if you don't accept this offer, I'll have to leave on my own."

"Just don't try anything," Sakura said, too tired to really care.

"See you at the tower," Naruto said with a wave to Lee as he walked to the edge of his forest. Moments later, Naruto's clones reached him while carrying his teammates. They proceeded to run towards the center of the forest.

Lee and Team Ten, the members of which had arrived just before Naruto did, were a little confused as they watched them leave.

* * *

It took a couple hours for Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke to reach the tower in the center of the forest, but they managed it.

Sasuke had slept for the first hour before waking up, and he had strange markings on his body at first, but they receded as soon as he saw that they were headed to the tower. Sakura had woken up half an hour later, still a little tired.

They actually did not meet any opposition on the way to the tower, but that was only because Naruto had created twenty of his explosive clones and had them clear the way for them. Naruto's theory was that if anyone tried to ambush one, then they would be unable to do anything when the real members of the team came along.

As it turned out, it worked.

Fortunately, Sasuke and Sakura had not really talked much during the journey, so neither one had confronted him about what happened when he was blown away. Sasuke was not even been told of the incident with the Sound ninja yet.

Naruto had actually told Sasuke and Sakura about him getting two complete sets of scrolls, but they had not asked how.

As they reached the tower, they noticed that there were forty-four doors around it. There were really only twenty-two actual doorways though, since every two doors went to a single entrance. The doors had a piece of paper that was placed over the gap between the two doors so that the paper would act as a seal of sorts. If anyone opened one of the sets of doors, then the paper would tear in half, indicating that someone had already used those doors. With that knowledge, the three genin found a door that had not yet been used and opened the doors. They walked through the entrance and entered a fairly large room.

"Nobody is here." Naruto said. "What should we do?"

"Look at that." Sakura said as she pointed at a sign on the wall.

"Without heaven… what the hell does this mean?" Naruto asked.

"It looks like it is missing words there." Sakura said as she pointed at a blank between two kanji. "I think that they are telling us to open up the scrolls."

"We are at the tower now, so that sounds right." Sasuke said as Naruto removed a set of scrolls from his hip pouch and handed one to Sakura. They unrolled the scrolls at that point.

"That's a summoning type jutsu. Let go of the scrolls." Sakura quickly said as he saw what was on the scrolls.

Naruto and Sakura threw the scrolls down. They crossed in an 'x' shape when they landed.

Smoke erupted from the scrolls and revealed none other than Iruka Umino. "Hey, it's been a while." Iruka said with a smile as he saw his former students.

"What's going on?" Naruto asked in confusion. "Why were you summoned? I mean, I'm glad to see you, but I'm a little confused."

"At the end of the second test, it's set up so that the chunin meet up with the examinees. I was allowed to be the one to greet you." Iruka explained.

"What do you mean by greet us?" Naruto asked.

"All three of you pass the second test, congratulations. To celebrate your successful completion of the second test, I'd like to buy you a round of ramen, but that will have to wait until later." Iruka said.

"What would have happened if we had opened the scrolls before getting to the tower?" Naruto asked.

"I would have been forced to disable you for the duration of the test," Iruka said in a serious tone. "But anyways, I'm supposed to explain the meaning of the writing on the wall right now anyways."

"I am curious as to what it means," Sakura said.

"It's the Chunin Motto, as written by Lord Hokage," Iruka said. "Heaven refers to the mind and earth refers to the body. If you lack heaven, seek wisdom and be prepared. That means that if you lack strength of mind, then study and prepare yourself for missions. If you lack earth, then run in the fields and seek advantages. That means that if you lack strength of body, then you must train your body. If you have both heaven and earth, you can succeed in even the most dangerous missions. The missing words basically come up to 'these rules will guide a person's extremes'."

The three genin nodded in understanding at that.

"The five days of the survival test were intended to test the examinees' basic abilities that are needed to become chunin. You three successfully passed that. Knowledge, stamina, and inner wisdom are all required to perform the duties of a chunin," Iruka said. "I want you guys to challenge the next step with the Chunin Motto in mind."

"That is all that I have to pass on to you. Just be careful and don't push yourselves too much in the third test," Iruka said.

"We won't bite off more than we can chew. We can handle it," Naruto said. "We're Leaf shinobi after all."

Sakura nodded in agreement while Sasuke did not argue, which was good enough to count for an agreement.

"How long do we still have?" Naruto asked curiously.

"The test began exactly one day ago," Iruka answered with a chuckle. "You're only the third team to finish, actually. I can show you to the rooms that you'll be staying in until the test is over with."

"Was the team from the Hidden Cloud Village one of those other two teams?" Naruto asked suddenly.

"Yes, they arrived about one hour ago, actually," Iruka said, surprised that Naruto guessed the right answer. "The other team was from the Hidden Sand Village. They arrived extremely fast."

"So Gaara's here," Naruto said without sounding surprised or even needing to ask if that was the team. He then opened his hip pouch and handed the other set of scrolls to Iruka. "I got some spares too."

"The Hidden Cloud's team did as well," Iruka said with a raised eyebrow.

"Can you show us to our rooms?" Naruto asked, avoiding the question that Iruka had implied.

"Sure," Iruka said with a look that promised that he would not get out of answering. He could only delay it.

* * *

As soon as they arrived at their rooms, Sakura went to sleep again while Iruka led Sasuke to see the Hokage.

A not-so-subtle comment from Naruto about the strange mark on Sasuke's neck was enough to get Iruka out of his hair for a while and annoy Sasuke at the same time. That's what he called a win-win situation.

He did look at the rooms a bit before leaving, but there was nothing to do there, really. They were simply three small bedrooms connected by a large room with a couple of sofas, a coffee table, and a book shelf.

Without anything else to do, Naruto went exploring the tower.

Before too long, he saw the exact person that he was hoping to see.

"Hey Samui," Naruto said with a wave as he saw the blonde walking towards what he assumed were the rooms that her team was given.

Turning around, a brief smiled showed on her face.

"Hello Naruto, it's good to see you again," she said as she walked over to him. "I trust you did not have any troubles finding your team and getting here?"

"Eh, I had to kick the Sound team's ass, but that's about it," Naruto said with a shrug.

"Oh?" Samui asked in interest. "If you want, it would be cool with me if you wanted to hang out in my team's rooms. Omoi and Karui are there, and I'm sure they'd be interested in hearing about this fight of yours just as much as I am."

"That sounds fun," Naruto said, relaxing. He had started to get nervous when she invited him there, but he was more comfortable with the thought of being around three foreign shinobi than one extremely attractive foreign shinobi that he had a crush on, despite the fact that she was included in both groups.

She led him to her the conjoining room, and it was clear that Omoi and Karui, who had been arguing from separate sofas, were surprised to see him. They did completely stop speaking, after all.

"I invited Naruto to hang out with us for a little while. I'm sure we could share some stories. Apparently, he got into a fight with the Sound shinobi today," Samui said, pointedly looking at her teammates. Any information that they could give on opposing teams was important.

"Like the twerp really fought them," Karui scoffed. "He probably left it to the Uchiha or something."

Samui sighed, predicting Naruto's response.

"Actually, Sasuke was unconscious when I got there. Apparently, he had been unconscious for at least fourteen hours," Naruto said with a frown as he took a seat on the unoccupied sofa. He froze a bit when Samui sat next to him, but he tried not to think about where she was sitting. "Sakura said that they fought someone that could easily beat them. Apparently, he summoned a snake too. Two if you count the one that attacked me."

Samui looked at him in alarm. She knew of only one shinobi that could summon snakes apart from Anko Mitarashi. If he had been the truth, that meant that Orochimaru was around. In that case, she needed to see Darui soon so he could send a message to the Raikage.

"Anyways, when I got back to Sakura, Sasuke was unconscious in a little cave, Sakura was exhausted from staying up all night and watching over him, and Rock Lee, Neji's other teammate, was on the ground. He had just been beaten up by one of the Sound ninja. He was the one that attacked Kabuto before the first test," Naruto said.

Samui nodded, remembering the attack. At the same time, she found it entertaining to hear that Neji Hyuga's teammate was fighting for Naruto's teammate.

"He can control sound waves with this device on his arm, or something like that. I slapped an explosive note on it though, so I'm pretty sure I destroyed it and crippled his arm," Naruto said with a shrug. "He was kind of weak, to be honest."

"Actually, you're just strong," Samui said with a shake of her head. "I've seen you fight, so I know."

Naruto actually blushed a little at that. He quickly began speaking, seeing Karui was about to say something. "Anyways, I tried to get both of his teammates to attack me at the same time, but only one of them attacked. I may have overdone it and used the Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu when she threw a dozen senbon." He chuckled sheepishly at that.

"Is the Shadow Clone Jutsu your specialty?" Omoi interrupted. "You can use the Shadow Clone Jutsu, the Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu, the Shadow Clone Explosion, and the Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu. Most people can only use one of those at most."

"It was the first jutsu I learned outside of the Academy jutsu," Naruto admitted, earning a few looks of surprise. "I didn't actually graduate from the Academy. I failed, and the assistant to our chunin-sensei tried to get me to steal our village's Forbidden Scroll, saying it was a secret test. If I could learn one jutsu from it, he said I'd become a genin."

"I don't understand," Samui said with a frown. The way he worded it left her puzzled.

"Well, I did steal it," Naruto said nervously. "I learned the Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu from it, and the Shadow Clone Jutsu is used the same way, so those were the first two jutsu I really learned. I didn't give him the scroll though. I found out it was a trick before that happened. I actually did become a genin after it though."

"You stole your village's Forbidden Scroll, and instead of punishing you, they let you become a genin," Karui said, dumbstruck.

"If you're capable of stealing it, I'm surprised they didn't want you in ANBU," Omoi commented.

"I wouldn't want to be in ANBU," Naruto said, sounding disgusted. "What's the fun in sneaking around?"

"He's a bit too flashy for an ANBU," Samui said, earning a nod from Naruto. "What happened after you defeated that Sound shinobi… Dosu, I believe his name is… and used the Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu?"

"Eh, the other guy shot some kind of sound waves out of these holes in his palms and knocked the shuriken back. I used a wind jutsu to take out his jutsu. Since Lee was there, I wanted to end the fight before Neji found us. So, I used one of my water jutsu to turn the ground they were standing in into mud and then used a wind jutsu to send all of the Sound ninja flying out of there," Naruto answered.

While Samui thought he lacked skill at telling stories, she got a pretty good picture of what he could do so far. He could use wind and water jutsu at least up to C-class, he could use the Shadow Clone Jutsu and all of its non-elemental variants that she knew of so far, his taijutsu was impressive, he had good instincts when it came to fighting, he possessed a surprising level of stealth and infiltration skills, and he did not seem to hold grudges.

"What happened in the Land of Waves, if you don't mind me asking?" Omoi asked suddenly.

"Eh, I guess it wouldn't hurt," Naruto said. As much as he did not wish to talk about Zabuza or Haku, he felt that he needed to. It helped that the Cloud ninja did not know him before the previous week, so they did not judge him based on previous experiences. Well, Karui did seem to judge him from the day he ran into her, but she was not that bad in all actuality.

So with that, Naruto began to tell them about the mission to the Land of Waves.

Over the next few days, Naruto would spend a surprising amount of time with Samui's time, and they would all share stories.

* * *

Author's Note: Thanks for reading and reviewing.

I enjoyed writing this chapter greatly. Samui is pretty fun to write, especially with how she seems to be two-sided at times. On one hand, you have the teenage girl. And on the other hand, you have the Cloud shinobi. The dynamic between those two sides can be fun to play around with at times.


	8. A Preliminary Round

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does.

* * *

**8. A Preliminary Round**

Naruto sighed as he stood amongst the crowd of the twenty-one genin that had passed the survival test in the Forest of Death.

He was glad that the second test was finally over with. He had enjoyed spending time with Samui and her team, but he had also found it boring to just sit around for days without anything to do but talk.

After the mark on the last Uchiha's neck was taken care of, Naruto had finally told Sasuke and Sakura about his encounter with Samui after they split up. Sasuke and Sakura both seemed to want to say something about it, but they had kept their opinions to themselves.

Looking around at the teams in the room, Naruto smiled. His fellow rookies had passed, along with Lee's team, Samui's team, Gaara's team, and the Sound team, though it looked like their leader was worse for wear with a heavily bandaged arm. Apparently, he had a spare Melody Arm though, seeing as he had an undamaged one on his good arm.

"First off," Anko Mitarashi said, drawing everyone's attention to the space in front of the small crowd. Behind her, Naruto could see people that he presumed to be the jonin-sensei of the teams that passed, along with the Hokage. "I'd like to say this: congratulations on passing the second test. You've all done well. So now, I pass on the torch to Lord Hokage. He will explain the third test."

Nodding, Hiruzen Sarutobi walked over and stood where Anko had been standing.

"Before I explain the test, there is something that I'd like you all to know. It concerns the true reason for this exam. Why do we have allied countries taking the exams together? The answers that are most often given are to promote friendship among the countries and raise the level of shinobi. I don't want you to be confused about the true meaning. The exam is a replacement for war among the allied countries. If you go back in time, the current allies were enemies who fought each other over who would rule. In order to prevent wasteful fighting, the Chunin Exams were made into an international event," Hiruzen said.

"I thought this was about becoming chunin," Sakura said.

"It is a fact that who becomes chunin is dependent on the Chunin Exams, but the exam has another side where each country's shinobi risks their own lives to protect their land's prestige. Watching this third exam will be leaders and influential individuals from many countries who make up the clients of shinobi. The leaders of the countries will be there to watch each of your battles. If the strength of a country is clear, then that country will receive more clients. Conversely, if the weakness of s country is clear, then that country will lose clients. This will signal to potential enemy countries that 'our country has this much power', so it will send a political message to the outsiders," Hiruzen said.

"But why do we have to risk our lives in battle?" Temari asked.

"The strength of the country is the strength of the village. The strength of the village is the strength of the shinobi. And a shinobi's true strength is born only through life risking battles. This exam is a place to see each country's strength and to show off your own strength. It only has meaning because lives are at risk, and that's why those that have come before you have fought in the Chunin Exams for this dream. That is meaningful," Hiruzen said.

"But why do you say stuff about it being for friendship then?" Tenten asked.

"I said it in the beginning. I don't want you to confuse the purpose of this. By losing life and establishing balance… that is the shape of friendship in the world of the shinobi. Before we begin the third test, I will tell you one more thing. This is not just a test… this is a life risking battle with your dreams and your country's prestige on the line," Hiruzen said.

"Can we get on to the life risking battles now?" Gaara asked.

"Yes, I'd like to explain the third test, but-" Hiruzen said.

"Actually… I am sorry Lord Hokage… from here on as the proctor, will you allow me to explain everything." a sick looking special jonin said, coughing occasionally.

"By all means," Hiruzen said.

"Hello everyone, I am Hayate Gekko, and I will be the proctor of the third test. Before the test, I would like to do something."

"What?" Kiba asked.

"It's a preliminary round for the third test to decide who gets to participate in the main event." Hayate said.

"Preliminary… what do you mean?" Shikamaru asked.

"Why can't all the people here participate in the next test?" Sakura asked.

"The first and second tests have been far too easy this year… we have a bit too many people remaining. According to the rules of the Chunin Exams, we have to have a preliminary round to reduce the number of participants for the third test. As Lord Hokage mentioned earlier, there will be guests at the third test, so we are limited in time to have the fights." Hayate said. "So anyways, those who aren't feeling well and those who feel like quitting after hearing these explanations, please step forward now. We will be starting the preliminary round immediately."

No one stepped forward. It seemed that everyone wanted to compete.

"We can begin the preliminary then. This preliminary will consist of one on one fighting. You will basically fight as in a real life confrontation. Since we have twenty-one entrants, we will conduct ten matches. The winners will advance to the third test, along with the competitor that is not chosen to compete in the preliminaries," Hayate said. "There are basically no rules. The fight continues until one of you dies, is knocked out, or admits defeat. If you don't want to die, then quickly acknowledge your defeat. If I decide that the winner has been clearly established though, I will jump in to stop things. We don't want to pointlessly increase the amount of corpses after all. And the object that controls your destiny is… this electronic scoreboard. It will show the match-ups for each battle. Now, let's announce the two names for the first fight."

An electronic scoreboard was revealed above the statue of the ram hand sign that was behind him. It immediately said: Sasuke Uchiha vs. Tenten.

"If everyone other than the two competitors named on the board could move to the balcony, it would be greatly appreciated."

As soon as the fight began, Sasuke's eyes lit up with the Sharingan.

"Taking me seriously?" Tenten asked.

Without answering, his hands flipped through a set of hand signs and used the Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu.

Tenten used a chakra enhanced jump immediately and threw a handful of shuriken at him.

Jumping out of the way, he utilized a fairly new jutsu of his, the Fire Style: Misty Flames Dance Jutsu.

As none of the genin present had ever encountered the jutsu before, the strange jutsu only confused them. It produced a flammable has that was barely visible.

He immediately threw a kunai towards her, knowing that there was only one course of action that she could take.

She pulled out a kunai of her own and deflected his with it.

The spark that occurred when the two kunai clashed ignited the flammable gas, making Lee and Guy look very alarmed.

As the fire faded away, Tenten fell to the ground. It appeared that her clothes were partially burnt and she had some minor burns on her skin.

She was unconscious.

"Sasuke Uchiha is the winner," Hayate said as he waved over the medical-nin.

Naruto smiled at the sight of his teammate's power. He could not wait until they could fight again one day.

* * *

After Sasuke's fight, Shino fought Zaku Abumi, Sakura fought Ino, Shikamaru fought Kin Tsuchi, Hinata fought Neji, Choji fought Dosu Kinuta, and Lee fought Gaara.

Shino won by clogging up the pipes in Zaku's arms, causing them to explode when he attempted to attack.

Sakura narrowly beat Ino by trapping her in a genjutsu and making her use her Mind Transfer Jutsu while facing the opposite direction.

Shikamaru ended up beating Kin by making her hit her head on the wall with his Shadow Possession Jutsu.

Neji ended up winning when Hinata forfeited shortly into the fight. A few people noted that she had looked to where Naruto was and saw that he was not paying attention to the fight at all. In fact, he was talking to Shikamaru and glancing at the Cloud shinobi instead of watching it.

Choji actually won as well. He pulled a _Naruto_ and slapped an explosive note on Dosu's Melody Arm. Coincidentally, he had overheard everything that Naruto had said to Shikamaru during the previous fight.

And Gaara had won his fight as a result of Guy interfering when he tried to kill Lee. From the looks of things, Lee would likely be crippled as a result of the fight.

Everyone's attention shifted to the scoreboard as it read: Omoi vs. Kankuro

As soon as Omoi and Kankuro were on the ground and Hayate started the match, Omoi's hands flashed through hand signs and he thrust his right palm forward. "Lightning Style: Lightning Beam."

Faster than Kankuro could react, a beam of lightning shot from Omoi's hand and struck Kankuro, electrocuting him into unconsciousness.

Even if he had been able to substitute with his puppet like he normally would have, Kankuro would have still been taken out by that jutsu.

Naruto looked at Omoi appraisingly as he returned to the balcony. He had not expected him to be that strong.

* * *

As soon as Kankuro was carried off by a medical-nin, the scoreboard lit up again. Samui vs. Temari.

Samui was not too pleased about the match-up as she jumped down to the ground. She knew her opponent was a wind-type, just like Naruto. As such, her lightning jutsu would lose any contest of strength in such a fight.

She immediately went through a series of hand signs as soon as Hayate started the match. She was not going to talk with her opponent at the moment.

_Demonic Illusion: Fire Jutsu._

Those caught in the genjutsu saw a massive fireball come from the ceiling of the room, headed straight for Temari.

She was quite pleased when she saw Temari try to use her jutsu to take out the illusional fireball.

Before the genjutsu could run its course, Samui had flipped through another set of hand signs and raised a lightning covered hand towards Temari.

"Lightning Style: Thunder Bullets," she whispered, releasing a barrage of two dozen spheres of lightning at the distracted Temari.

She quickly used _Genjutsu: Optic Delusory_ to hide her jutsu from sight.

The addition of a second genjutsu actually broke the first one, causing Temari to stop seeing the giant fireball. She looked confused as she tried to figure out what was going on. And that was when she was electrocuted into unconsciousness.

"Samui wins," Hayate said a moment later.

Many people were clapping at that. It seemed that the Hidden Cloud Village had strong genin.

Samui did not smile or celebrate her victory in any way. She merely headed back to the balcony. It was not her style to gloat.

* * *

Naruto inwardly congratulated Samui, but his attention was now on something else.

He looked at Karui and Kiba suddenly. There were only three shinobi that had not yet fought. He would either fight one of those two, or Karui and Kiba would fight. Personally, he hoped that he was chosen. He would be fine with either opponent, but he did not wish to go to the final test without even fighting in the preliminaries.

Looking up at the screen, he smiled. Naruto vs. Kiba.

Naruto jumped down to the ground immediately and dropped into a taijutsu stance.

Kiba jumped down shortly after Naruto did.

"You may begin," Hayate said.

"You should just give up," Kiba said as grinned. "You're never going to defeat me, dead-last."

Naruto chuckled at that, earning a few surprised looks. "How many hours of training has your sensei put you through?"

Surprised by the question, Kiba seemed to hesitate. "I guess about fifty."

"Genma-sensei and Raido-sensei put me through two hundred hours of training together," Naruto said, shaking his head.

Every Leaf shinobi present, apart from the Hokage, stared at Naruto in shock.

They knew that his sensei was Kakashi, so the announcement that he had two other sensei was something of a shock. None were more shocked than Kakashi.

"Your sensei is named Kakashi," Kiba said, trying to understand what Naruto was saying.

"And your point is?" Naruto asked as he flipped through a series of hand signs. _Water Style: Raging Waves._

A massive stream of water shot towards Kiba from Naruto's mouth, stopping him from answering. He easily dodged it, but Akamaru was hit by it, being unable to move out of the way fast enough.

On the balcony, Kakashi watched the fight, deep in though. Those near him could hear him whispering, "How did I not notice? I had no idea he could even use elemental jutsu yet. I knew he was getting stronger, but I did not know how."

But Naruto was not looking towards his sensei at that moment. Instead, he was jumping into the air, forming hand signs for another jutsu.

_Water Style: Water Trumpet._

A powerful jet of water shot from Naruto's mouth barely grazing Kiba's shoulder and causing damage to the floor.

"Shit," Kiba muttered with a grimace. "I need to start fighting or he's going to beat me." He used Ninja Art of Beast Mimicry: All-Fours Jutsu at that point, preparing to use his clan's taijutsu. "Tunneling Fang," he said as he moved towards Naruto, spinning around with such speed that it looked like a gray whirlwind was coming at him.

No one expected Naruto to react how he did thought.

He simply blocked it with both arms crossed in front of him, and he managed to stop Kiba in his tracks without even sliding back. Chakra control was the only reason he kept his footing though.

He quickly brought his arms across quickly, knocking Kiba back. He then kicked Kiba into the air and used _Wind Style: Great Breakthrough_ to through Kiba into the wall that was behind him.

Kiba fell to the ground, unconscious.

"Naruto Uzumaki wins," Hayate said after a long, silent moment. No one had really expected Naruto to be as strong as he was apart from Samui and her team, even though Karui would claim that she did not think he was strong at all.

"I need all of the ones that advanced to the third test to come down to the arena floor, along with Karui of the Hidden Cloud Village," Hayate said as soon as Kiba was carried off. Naruto had not even had time to attempt to go up to the balcony yet.

Karui and all of the genin that won their preliminary matches quickly made their way to the arena floor.

"Well, with this, the preliminary round for the third test has been completed. Those of you that remain will get to compete in the third test. Lord Hokage, would you like to proceed?" Hayate said.

"Yes, I'd like to start explaining the actual third test now. As I told you before, in the main event, your matches will be seen by everyone. Each of you will fight to represent the strength of your countries. I'd like you to show off all your powers with no reserves. That is why the finals will be held one month from now," Hiruzen said.

"Why are we waiting a month?" Naruto asked.

"This break will be for preparations. In addition to informing all the various country lords and shinobi leaders, this is the time needed to arrange for the gathering of the event. It is also the preparation time for the examinees. You can use this time to get to know more about your enemies and train. You can simply rest for the month if you want, but it is not recommended," Hiruzen said.

_I don't know about them, but I'm not going to rest for a month. Shikamaru might, though._

"Before I can dismiss you, there are pieces of paper inside the box that Anko is holding. I want each one of you to take one piece from it." Hiruzen said.

"I'll come to you, so wait your turn." Anko said.

"You are currently drawing lots for the third test." Hiruzen said. "Now that you've all taken a piece, I would like you to tell us the number on your piece of paper starting from the left."

"I have ten," Sasuke said.

"I have eleven," Shino said.

"I have seven," Sakura said.

"I have five," Shikamaru said.

"I have four," Neji said.

"I have eight," Choji said.

"I have nine," Gaara said.

"I have three," Omoi said.

"I have two," Samui said.

"I have one," Naruto said.

"I have six," Karui said.

"The first match will be Naruto Uzumaki vs. Samui. The second match will be Omoi vs. Neji Hyuga. The third match will be Shikamaru Nara vs. Karui. The fourth match will be Sakura Haruno vs. Choji Akimichi. The fifth match will be Gaara vs. Sasuke Uchiha. And the sixth match will be the winner of the fifth match vs. Shino Aburame," Anko Mitarashi said as she held up a tournament bracket diagram to show the matches.

At the knowledge of who they would be facing, Naruto looked at Samui, only to see her smiling.

"Are there any questions?" Hiruzen asked.

"Since it's a tournament, it would mean that there is only one winner, right?" Shikamaru asked. "Does that mean that only one person can become a chunin?"

"No, that is not quite it. There will be judges to watch over the matches. The lords of various countries and I are among the judges. The judges will determine who has what it takes to become a chunin. You can lose your first match or even forfeit and still become a chunin. It is possible for everyone to make chunin, but it is also possible for none of you to make chunin. The farther you make it into the tournament, the more chances that you have to show to the judges whether or not you are worthy of the rank of chunin," Hiruzen said.

When no one spoke, the Hokage said, "Thank you for all of the effort you have exerted thus far. You are all dismissed until one month from now."

* * *

As soon as the genin left the room where the preliminaries had been held, Naruto found himself, Sakura, and Sasuke led to another room by Kakashi.

"First of all, I'd like to congratulate you three on the progress you made so far. It's truly amazing for an entire team to make it to the third test of the Chunin Exams after a preliminary round. The only other team to do so this time was the team from the Hidden Cloud Village," Kakashi said. "Unfortunately, I cannot train all three of you at the same time, especially seeing as how you may fight each other during the tournament. As such, I will need to arrange training for two of you."

"You mean me and Sakura, right?" Naruto asked. "Sasuke needs your help the most. Sakura can probably beat Choji right now, and Samui won't be trying to kill me."

Kakashi stared at Naruto for a moment. He had been unsure as to what he should do. On one hand, he felt bad about not training Naruto, especially after learning that Genma and Raido had been training him. On the other hand, he knew that Gaara would try to kill Sasuke.

"Yes," Kakashi said after a few moments. "Sakura, I will arrange a teacher for you. As soon as I know the details, I'll find you." He then looked to Naruto, but he never had the chance to speak.

"Don't worry about him," Genma said as he walked into the room. "Lord Hokage listed me as a reserve proctor in case Hayate's illness acts up, but I found him a teacher shortly after the preliminary began."

"You were confident he would make it," Kakashi noted.

"Of course," Genma said, seeming surprised at the question. "There was no doubt in my mind that he would make it. I have seen him grow a great deal since I started teaching him."

"I imagine so," Kakashi said with a pointed look. "I'd like for you guys to head towards the exit. I'll help you get out of the training ground after I'm through here."

All three of the genin left at that point, leaving Genma and Kakashi alone.

Silence remained for a few minutes later, until Raido Namiashi entered the room as well.

"Hayate informed me that Naruto revealed that we trained him," Raido said as he stopped next to Genma. "I figured you'd want to see us at the same time."

"Thanks for coming," Kakashi said with a nod. "I won't get angry that you trained him or anything stupid like that, but I wish you had at least informed me that you were training one of my genin."

"You should have been able to find out without me telling you," Genma said. "You're the one that always says to look underneath the underneath."

Kakashi sighed but nodded in agreement. "Who do you intend to have train him?"

"I'll be training him," Raido said with a serious expression. "I intend to make sure he has three hundred hours of experience with a sword before he fights his opponent."

"And we'll have a shadow clone train with your idol," Genma said. He then looked to Raido. "Come on. I made a killing by betting that Naruto would make it to the third test, so I'm buying a round at the bar."

With that, the pair left and Kakashi looked more than a little surprised.

* * *

Author's Note: If you read Chapter 8 prior to 7/6/2012, you should know that I deleted it and readded it with another scene.

I spent the past few days trying to work on Chapter 9 when I realized that I either had to write a very short chapter or add what I originally wrote to this chapter and go straight to the Third Test with Chapter 9.

I like to see training chapters occasionally, but showing Naruto's training at this point wouldn't be productive. It's one thing if he's training like he did in canon after the preliminaries when what he learns during the training break has no impact on his next fight, but it's another thing if it does. For instance, would you have wanted to see Naruto actually develop the Rasenshuriken before he used it on Kakuzu, or was it better for the jutsu to make its first appearance as he prepared to use it on Kakuzu? I personally thought it was done the way it should be.

So Chapter 9 will start the Third Test. I may go from the beginning of the third test to the start of the invasion next chapter. I'm still thinking about it.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the story so far, and have a good day.


	9. The Finals

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Kishimoto does.

* * *

**9. The Finals**

One month had passed since the preliminaries, and all eleven contestants were already in the arena, ready to compete.

Of the eleven shinobi, only one noticeably looked different than they had a month before. That one was Naruto.

He had changed his clothes to a black version of what most Leaf shinobi of at least Chunin-level wore, complete with Uzumaki spirals on the shoulders. A wakizashi with a crimson hilt and a black scabbard was also strapped to his back. Due to his size, the wakizashi looked more like a katana.

The sword had received more than a few looks from the other contestants, but when they asked him about it, he talked about how awesome it made him look, so most people simply assumed that it was just for show.

Nine of the Chunin Exams contestants were in the waiting area, while Naruto and Samui were standing across from each other in the center of the arena.

"Begin," Genma said suddenly, causing Naruto and Samui to flip through a series of hand signs.

"Lightning Style: Lightning Beam," Samui said as a beam of lightning shot from her hand towards Naruto.

"Wind Style: Twister Shot," Naruto said as he exhaled a slender whirlwind from his mouth.

The two jutsu hit each other and were canceled out. It was a testament to Samui's skills that her jutsu was able to cancel out a jutsu of a superior element.

"Wind Style: Air Bullets," Naruto said as a dozen balls of dense air formed around him and shot towards Samui at high speed.

"Lightning Style: Thunder Bullets," Samui said, aiming her jutsu carefully so that it canceled his out yet again. She then formed a hand sign that made Naruto's eyes narrow.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu," she said, forming a single clone next to her.

As it was not the kinjutsu variant of the jutsu, it was easy enough to create a clone with exactly half of her chakra and still have enough to fight.

However, Lightning Style jutsu took more chakra to cast than any other element, on average. As a result, the tactic that she was relying on was not one that was generally recommended.

Samui and her clone drew their swords and moved in to attack Naruto.

However, Naruto was eager to show his opponent that he was even better with the Shadow Clone Jutsu.

"Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu," Naruto said, creating an army of one hundred clones.

Quickly sheathing their swords, Samui and her clone flipped through a series of hand signs and slammed their right hands to the ground with satisfied smirks.

"Lightning Style: Lightning Surge," they said as lightning spread from their hands towards the army of clones, easily shocking them. Every time one of the clones was hit by it, lightning would arc off of them in four different directions before the clone would dispel.

As a result, the entire army was wiped out within a few moments, and even Naruto was hit by the jutsu.

"Wind Style: Wind Stream," Naruto said as he exhaled a deep breath, sending a powerful stream of wind towards the ground that lifted him up twenty yards.

As soon as the jutsu carried him as high as it was going to go, he threw a shuriken and flipped through a series of hand signs. "Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu."

The single shuriken turned into five hundred, but that was not the greatest move that he could have made.

"Lightning Style: Lightning Beam," Samui and her clone said as they shot beams of lightning into the mass of shuriken. All of the shuriken were electrified, destroying the clones and even shocking Naruto once again.

But Naruto disappeared, only to be replaced by a log.

Samui quickly began to look around, recognizing the Substitution Jutsu easily.

* * *

All throughout the arena, people that had known Naruto in the past were surprised by his performance.

Many people only knew him as a prankster and a dead-last, and yet he had already displayed several elemental ninjutsu, along with a couple A-rank jutsu.

Hiruzen Sarutobi could be seen smiling, impressed by how far his adoptive grandson had come.

Kakashi could be seen looking a little sad, feeling as though he had failed Naruto as a result of his inability to provide the boy with any of the abilities that he was displaying.

Naruto's graduating class were watching the fight, unable to stop themselves from thinking about how much Naruto had changed since he was unable to graduate because of his inability to use the Clone Jutsu.

Those that had supported Naruto for a long time, like Teuchi and Ayame, were cheering loudly. Iruka would have been doing the same, but he was busy at the Academy at that moment.

And even the civilians and the shinobi of the village that had looked down upon Naruto could not help but admit that they were impressed so far.

* * *

Samui suddenly spun around and blocked Naruto's wakizashi with her tanto, surprising the spectators. They did not see the attack that she had blocked, after all.

Naruto became visible suddenly. His Transparency Jutsu had worn off the moment his sword made contact with hers.

"That's a pretty cool jutsu," Samui said as she jumped back. She tossed her sword into the air, flipped through a series of hand signs, and caught her sword.

Naruto's eyes opened wide as he lost the ability to move. There was nothing physically stopping him from moving, and yet it felt as though he was bound.

"Surrender," Samui said as she walked towards him with her tanto.

"Genjutsu," Naruto muttered before he bit his lip hard enough to draw blood. He was suddenly released from Samui's Genjutsu Binding, and he jumped back just in time to dodge Samui's attack.

Sheathing his sword, Naruto withdrew two shuriken and threw them at her. He silently wished her luck as he prepared a lethal combo.

Following up his Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu with Wind Style: Gale Palm and Wind Style: Great Breakthrough, Naruto watched as a thousand shuriken were propelled towards Samui with extreme force.

"The match is over," Genma said as a large wall of earth rose between the attack and Samui, easily blocking Naruto's combo attack.

Naruto frowned slightly, surprised that Genma had interfered. Closely looking at Samui, he saw that she was breathing hard and had not moved, even after she saw his attack. Realization dawned in his eyes suddenly. She had been too exhausted to fight anymore. With all of the lightning jutsu that she used, along with the Shadow Clone, her chakra is extremely low.

"Naruto Uzumaki is the winner," Genma said, causing a surprising number of people to cheer.

As soon as Genma announced that he won, Naruto walked up to Samui and offered his hand.

"You fought well," Naruto said with a smile.

Samui returned the smile and shook his head. "Not as well as you, apparently. I wish you luck in the next rounds. Don't lose. You have the potential to win this tournament, and I'd be cool with only losing to the one that beat everyone."

"Sure thing," Naruto said with a grin.

They parted ways at that with Samui going to join up with the other Cloud shinobi in the audience and Naruto going back to the waiting area, where his friends were eager to congratulate him.

* * *

The next three matches went by fairly quickly.

The majority of Omoi's fight with Neji was spent with Neji giving a monologue about the evil nature of the Hidden Cloud Village and about their actions in the Hyuga Affair.

Once the actual fight began, Omoi easily beat Neji, displaying why Gentle Fist was no match for Cloud-Style kenjutsu.

Shikamaru and Karui's fight took even less time than the previous fight. It ended with Shikamaru capturing Karui in the Shadow Possession Jutsu and forcing her to place the blade of her katana to her throat.

Out of all the fights, Sakura's fight with Choji was the longest. Somehow, he knew that she was a genjutsu type, so he used his Expansion Jutsu and tried to crush her with his Human Boulder technique. As the few genjutsu she had were only effective if the target witnessed the jutsu be cast, she was unable to affect him with her genjutsu.

After a thirty minute fight, she managed to lure him into a trap with four explosive notes on the ground around him. He gave up at that point, though it was unlikely that she would be of much use during the next round due to how beat up and exhausted she was by the end of it.

From the waiting area, Naruto watched Sasuke's fight with Gaara begin. Right from the bat, Sasuke had tested Gaara's defense using his new speed, and it became clear that Sasuke actually could get beyond it.

But still, Sasuke was not playing around, it seemed. He had gotten his distance and began to use a jutsu that made Naruto's blood boil, the Chidori.

In all honesty, his only problem with the jutsu was the fact that Haku had been killed by it, or so he believed. He did not know that Kakashi had actually used its upgraded form to commit the act.

Given how much Haku had changed his perspective, he was not exactly fond of that jutsu.

Naruto shook his head from his thoughts, watching as Sasuke used the Chidori on Gaara. It cut through Gaara's defenses and actually wounded him, but his sand had allowed him to misdirect the attack.

The instant that the Chidori sliced open Gaara's side, Sasuke jumped back and tried other methods of approach.

A short time later, feathers began to fall from the sky.

A frown reached Naruto's face as he felt a genjutsu try to set in, and Gaara's siblings and sensei appeared at his side.

All throughout the arena, Sand ninja were readying themselves to attack.

Naruto had absolutely no idea what was going on, but he knew that he needed to be at his teammate's side, regardless of any problems that they had in the past.

With that, he jumped down to the arena floor and rushed to Sasuke's side.

"Gaara's hurt. We need to get out of here," Temari suddenly said.

"Do what you can, but we still need him," Baki said. "I'll hold everyone here off."

As soon as Gaara was taken away, Genma looked at Naruto and Sasuke.

"Go after them. The Chunin Exams are officially over," Genma said as he began to attack Baki.

"Right," Naruto said as he exchanged a look with Sasuke. They quickly did as instructed, unaware that they were not the only ones following Gaara and his siblings.

The Sand-Sound Invasion, as it would be called in the future, had just begun.

* * *

Author's Note: I apologize in taking so long getting this chapter out. I really wasn't feeling motivated, which is why I only actually detailed one battle. The preparation that goes behind writing a number of different fights back to back is frustrating for me. I actually assemble notepad documents for each character detailing what jutsu they can use, including type of jutsu and rank. I then need to think carefully on it so that I can write the character's fights without them coming out stilted.

In the end, I just couldn't get Omoi's fight with Neji or Sakura's fight with Choji right, so I just did this. Sasuke's fight with Gaara is pretty much canon, which is the reason that I did not explain it any more thoroughly.

I hope this chapter was satisfactory, even though it was shorter than I would have liked and Naruto's new skills (or at least the ones he obtained under Jiraiya) did not really show themselves yet. I wanted to save those skills for Gaara. As it is, he doesn't need to use them in a fight with Samui. The jutsu that he practiced on his own were really all that were needed to expand his repetoire enough for the fight.

And as you may have noticed, the people that went after Gaara and his siblings were different in this than in canon. Sakura and Shikamaru won't be going after them. Nor will Pakkun. It's just Naruto, Sasuke, and three certain individuals that you could probably guess with little difficulty. So that's five people, and they have to deal with Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara.

Anyways, thanks for reading and reviewing.


End file.
